Marianne Sar, graduate of the MSc Real Estate Management & Valuation, was awarded the prize for the best Master's thesis 2024 on 10th October 2024. She was one of five alumni from five real estate universities to present her thesis at the gala evening. The prize is awarded annually by ImmQu - Association for the Promotion of Quality in the Real Estate Industry, opens an external URL in a new window and recognises the achievements of newly qualified real estate experts.

Marianne Sar's presentation was entitled "What is the S in ESG?" and summarised her research approach and the results. In her thesis, Ms Sar defines which social criteria are already established in the real estate industry, which should be supplemented and develops a catalogue of criteria with a classification derived from this. You can read the full version of the master's thesis entitled "S in ESG: Evaluation of social sustainability in property - Critical review of the social taxonomy and the limits of certification systems" here, opens an external URL in a new window.

The best students of the five universities also received a prize for their academic achievements. Raffael Rosenmaier, BSc MSc, received the prize for the best student of the year 2024 as the graduate with the best grade point average from the TU Wien Academy for Continuing Education.

The ImmQu Best of Five evening also offered other graduates of Austrian real estate degree programmes the opportunity to present their Master's theses. The interesting topics covered some of the most important current aspects of the property industry, such as "Women in the real estate industry", "Influence of climate change on the hospitality real estate asset class in Tyrol", "ESG in real estate financing" and "Legal uncertainty in the valuation of real estate companies".

The event was rounded off with an inspiring keynote speech by expert Dr Gudrun Ghezzo, who spoke about the "7 success factors for a high-performance and resilient professional life". Afterwards, there were many personal discussions with the honoured graduates and guests.

We congratulate all award winners and thank the organisers of ImmQu - Verein zur Förderung der Qualität in der Immobilienwirtschaft and the FH Wiener Neustadt for this successful event.