Biography
Dr Michael Waters (Associate Professor in Real Estate) is an applied academic who combines academic knowledge and research with practical, real-world application. His career successes over the past 25 years have been built on conducting research with practical relevance having worked as a Research Associate at The University College of Estate Management (Reading) and Knight Frank (London) and going on to teaching real estate at two leading UK’s universities (Bayes (formerly Cass) Business School, London; Oxford Brookes University, Oxford).
He has been Programme Director for MSc Real Estate at Heriot Watt University’s Dubai Campus since 2009, having launched the region’s first postgraduate taught real estate programmes. Under his management and curriculum development the MSc in Real Estate has seen significant growth and is the most popular and presitigious real estate programme in the Middle East.
Since working in Dubai, Michael has established himself as an expert on real estate markets in the Middle East, while maintaining industry and professional engagement at the core of his teaching philosophy, working with practitioners from a number of top global firms and professional bodies including: JLL; Cavendish Maxwell; Cushman Wakefield; Knight Frank; Savills; Newmark; RICS; and CoreNet Global Middle East.
His PhD examined property valuation variance in Dubai, including the role of market information, transaction evidence, yield assumptions, standardisation and behavioural influences on valuation. The research also identified implications for wider GCC and Middle Eastern valuation markets.
His 2023 book, ‘The Essential Guide to the Dubai Real Estate Market’ (Routledge) is probably the clearest demonstration of his progression into a leading authority on local real estate markets, cited widely as the first book to fully present, analyse and interpret the Dubai real estate market. It covers residential and commercial markets, investment, valuation, development, market data, regulation, sustainability and Dubai's future development.
His second book, ‘Building a Global Career in Real Estate, Beyond Brokerage’ (Routledge) due for publication in December 2026 evolves his professional interests further to understanding the people and careers that operate within global real estate markets. This book builds on more than two decades of teaching, research, professional practice and mentoring to examine the wider global real estate profession and the diverse careers available within it as well as examining what technology, AI and sustainability all mean for the next generation of real estate professionals.
Michael holds several external roles, maintaining active links with real estate practice and the wider real estate education community, including:
- Assessor/Chairperson for the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS)
- External Examiner, TU Dublin
He holds prestigious qualifications including
- PhD in Urban Studies (Real Estate), Heriot-Watt University (UK)
- PGCert Academic Practice (FHEA), Heriot-Watt University (UK)
- MSc Real Estate, The University of Reading (UK)
- BSc (Hons) Geography, The University of Sheffield (UK)
- Professionally qualified Chartered Surveyor (MRICS)