Planning, Land and Real Estate Development (specialisation)

Entry requirements

A completed Bachelor's degree from a spatially-oriented discipline

In order to get admission to this Master's you will need a completed Bachelor’s degree from a spatially-oriented discipline, such as spatial planning, human geography or environment studies.

Proficiency in English

In order to take part in this programme, you need to have fluency in both written and spoken English.This requirement has been satisfied when the student meets the conditions, listed on our website.

A background in research methodology

Because of the academic nature of this programme, we require all our students to have basic training in research processes, e.g. research design and data analysis.

Months of entry

September

Course content

The Master's specialisation in Planning, Land and Real Estate Development provides a land and real estate development perspective on urban development. Cities face continuous processes of both expansion and transformation. Population growth and economic growth lead to expansion, while processes of obsolescence and decline lead to a demand for urban transformation projects. These processes usually require investments in land and property (re)development, while planning interventions provide guidelines to investors, sometimes as opportunities, but also as barriers to what an investor might see as a profitable investment.

The type of investments and the requirements to these investments change over time. Many European cities have ‘matured’ and increasingly have to deal with urban transformation, while megacities in Asia and Latin America still show rapid growth. The global financial and economic crisis has slowed down real estate investments, leaving cities with stalled developments. Climate change and policies for sustainable urban development have put new challenges to land and real estate investments, but have also created new opportunities for smart city developers.

Policies for and investments in transit oriented development and low-carbon urban development are the result of this. This interaction between planning interventions on the one hand and land and real estate investments on the other hand is the central theme of this Master's specialisation. Starting from that interaction the Master's specialisation pays attention to different planning instruments and their impact on land and real estate markets, the dynamics of land and real estate markets, investment behaviour by private and public developers, public private partnerships, land management strategies and value capturing mechanisms and smart land and real estate investment strategies.

If you have any questions, email us here: study-information@ru.nl

Learn more via the Radboud University contact form.

Information for international students

Application deadlines

Non-EU/EEA students

• The deadline for non-EU/EEA students who wish to apply for a scholarship is 31 January prior to the September intake. For the requirements and selection procedure for scholarships, please check our scholarship overview.
• The deadline for those not applying for a scholarship is 1 April for non-EU/EEA nationals for the September 2026 intake. You can apply for the September 2026 intake from 1 October 2025.

EU/EEA students

• The application deadline for EU/EEA students with housing assistance for the September 2026 intake is 1 May, and the deadline without housing assistance is 1 July. You can apply from 1 October onward for the 2026/2027 academic year.

The application deadlines for Master’s starting in February are 1 November for non-EU/EEA citizens and 1 December for EU/EEA citizens.

Fees and funding

Radboud University offers 3 different scholarships that are open to prospective Master's students from non-EU/EEA countries and who want to follow an English-taught Master's programme.

Radboud Scholarship Programme

The Radboud Scholarship Programme offers talented, highly motivated, non-EU/EEA students with outstanding study results the opportunity to be awarded a partial scholarship for an English-taught Master’s programme.

NL Scholarship (for prospective students)

The NL Scholarship (formerly known as Holland Scholarship) is a partial scholarship for non-EU/EEA students who want to do their Master’s in the Netherlands.

Fulbright-Radboud Scholarships

The Fulbright Commission, sponsored by Radboud University, is offering scholarships for talented American students to study at Radboud University.