REA started in January 2025 in Rotterdam with a very local idea: bring ambitious real estate students closer to each other and closer to the industry.
What happened next changed the ambition.
We saw how quickly strong people attracted other strong people. Good members built better events, better industry relationships and stronger local teams. Better events, more industry partners and stronger teams attracted better applicants. Better applicants attracted more industry partners. Every new city made the wider network more useful to everyone already inside it.
That became the central lesson behind REA’s growth: talent attracts talent – and exceptional people build exceptional networks. Once that became clear, there was little reason for the idea to stop in Rotterdam.
The journey so far
Rotterdam’s first real estate club
January 2025
REA begins as a local student real estate club at Erasmus University Rotterdam, bringing together its first 15 members.
REA’s first industry events
Early 2025
In its first few months, REA Rotterdam brought members across the real estate industry – visiting construction sites, company offices alongside workshops and lectures spanning the broad value chain.
Rotterdam goes to St. Gallen
April 2025
The Rotterdam team travels to St. Gallen, invited by its local real estate club – a perhaps small step geographically, but an important one conceptually – showing how much more valuable the experience becomes when members, universities and markets begin to connect across borders.
The idea gets bigger
Summer 2025
REA starts expanding beyond the Netherlands. New teams are recruited across Europe, while a common structure, recruitment approach and identity begin to take shape. REA became a network.
REA Vienna Kickoff
October 2025
REA holds its first major cross-border kickoff in Vienna, bringing together members and industry around the newly expanding European network.
REA Zurich Kickoff
October 2025
The next chapter follows almost immediately in Zurich – another market, another team, and further proof that the model can travel.
REA Netherlands Kickoff
October 2025
A new chapter in Amsterdam deepens REA’s Dutch roots and officially marks the transition from a Rotterdam initiative into a pan-european and international network.
Momentum across Europe
Autumn 2025
In its first semester, REA is running around three events per week across its growing chapter network. New teams, new industry relationships and consistent local execution quickly build REA’s presence across Europe.
REA New York Panel
February 2026
REA hosts its first event in the United States with a successful speaker panel in New York. By this point, the network is approaching 40 chapters across Europe and North America.
REA Singapore
March 2026
The first REA event in Singapore follows shortly after, marking the beginning of the network’s expansion across East Asia and Asia-Pacific. REA is becoming genuinely global.
Amsterdam City Trip
April 2026
Members from 13 chapters come together in Amsterdam for REA’s first City Trip. It becomes one of the clearest demonstrations yet of what a cross-border REA network can create.
Frankfurt City Trip
May 2026
Members from ten chapters spend three days in Frankfurt’s real estate market, meeting leading firms, visiting assets and building relationships across the network. City Trips become REA’s flagship cross-border program.
End of the academic year
June 2026
REA closes the 2025/26 academic year with more than 55 chapters across 30 countries, over 60 executed events and 32 cross-border hirings. What had been a single student club roughly eighteen months earlier had become an international platform.
Approaching 65 chapters
Summer 2026
Expansion continues across Europe, North America, APAC, the Middle East, Africa and further markets, bringing REA toward 65 chapters and more than 150 universities. At the same time, the organization behind the network grows: regional leadership, larger global teams, new roles, new infrastructure and significantly more ambitious international initiatives.
We’re just getting started
The coming academic year is built around scale with more structure behind it. More City Trips. More cross-border programming. The rollout of the REA Platform. A global mentorship programme. IREC. Deeper partnerships. More chapters – and a much larger professional and alumni network beginning to form around them.
The central lesson remains the same: talent attracts talent – and exceptional people build exceptional networks. We are approaching 65 chapters today.
We still consider this the beginning.
