Exan Chanderli - Why a Master’s in Singapore is a Great Choice for a Career in Real Estate

Selling Southeast Asia

Recent Netflix shows including Selling Sunset, Owning Manhattan and The Parisian Agency have allowed us all to step into the world of real estate and glimpse exactly how this high-stakes industry operates. It was shows like these that piqued the interest of Exan Chanderli while he was studying for his bachelor’s at EHL. As a result, he decided to do an internship at Barnes in Geneva, one of the biggest real estate brokerages in the world. “I was super lucky. It was a very fast-paced environment. A lot of the top brokers worked there. It was a really nice experience.” Convinced that real estate was the industry for him, he returned to EHL to learn more. There, Exan was encouraged by a teacher to apply for a master’s at the National University of Singapore (NUS), which chimed with his desire to establish his career in Southeast Asia, a region he already knew and loved, having spent his teenage years living in Indonesia.

Why did you think a master’s was necessary?

“The real estate course at EHL is great, but it's just one semester, one class a week. You learn a lot within such a few hours, but I felt like I needed more knowledge. I needed to connect the dots between the finance side I learned [at EHL] and the operational side I learned during my internship. Also, I thought I needed the Southeast Asian study background as well.”

 

Did this master’s at the National University of Singapore meet your expectations?

“Yes, 100%. It's super detailed. Every part of the real estate business is taught in a different class. You have a few electives, but it's mainly finance, real estate development, more things on the urbanization side, more things on the legal side. You also have a lot of group projects that involve different classes. You have to take what you've learned in the, let's say, finance class and use it in the development class to make sure your project goes right. Also, the background of the teachers was just amazing. Our finance teacher was the ex-sovereign fund manager of Singapore. The development teacher was a super successful developer in Singapore who was teaching this path just for fun.”

 

As part of the course you went on a field trip to Korea. Was that a useful experience?

“Most of the classes and most of the teachers [at NUS] are Singaporean, and a lot of things you learn are Singapore-related. With this field trip, what they try to do is to give you another perspective of a different market. Some years it's in Europe, some years it's in Asia, some years

it's in the UAE. For us they picked Korea, and it was a one-week, 10-day field trip where we visited all the top real estate companies in two different cities and met the most interesting people. It was really nice to have insights from people from another market. I knew the Swiss market very well, I knew the Singapore market very well, and now the Korean market as well. That's obviously super beneficial.”

And what was it like living in Singapore during your studies?

“Singapore is, I think, my favorite place on Earth. It has everything. You have the weather, you have the beach, you still have the city life. The networking is amazing; you can meet people from everywhere that are just transiting in Singapore. But at the same time, it's also super safe, super clean. Food-wise, you have everything...”

So how did you come to live and work in Bali?

“During my master's, I had the chance to study different markets in Southeast Asia, and especially Indonesia and Bali, which currently is probably the most interesting real estate market in the world in terms of returns, prices, opportunities, growth. I did all my [master’s projects about] Bali, so I could learn a lot about the market, the rules, the regulations. That's how I first got into it. Then I had a two-month break during my master's where I went to Bali and started looking at land, talking to people, seeing what I could do.”

How did the career support at NUS help you establish your own company?

“I already knew before the beginning of the second semester that I would probably do my own thing and not try and find a job, so I didn't really get involved in the career fairs. I just asked my teachers so much advice on how to set up my company, how to start, how to talk to investors. I'm still being mentored by some of them, so I’m super grateful for that.”

What’s your biggest wish for your career now?

“I'm trying to expand in Jakarta now, and I feel my goal would be to grow as an international real estate development company, maybe move to Singapore as well. I would like to have offices there, but still have projects in Bali, have projects everywhere, and have more investors. But I'm really grateful because I managed to sell my first project really fast, and this helped a lot with talking to people. I think if I keep going and selling fast, building nice stuff, I can probably reach my goals.”

Check out the full list of student profiles and their diverse career paths.