MIT will begin offering a professional certificate in real estate this summer.

MIT Professional Education, in collaboration with the MIT Center for Real Estate, will begin the certificate program in June. It will be comprised of five courses taught by MIT faculty in Cambridge.

"MIT Professional Education created the Professional Certificate in Real Estate program in response to global developments that underscore the need to understand real estate markets and underwriting real estate risk in order to truly understand financial markets," Bhaskar Pant, executive director of MIT Professional Education, said in a statement. "Our new certificate program provides professionals from an array of industries and backgrounds with a clear understanding of the real estate development process."

Participants must complete all five required courses in a two-year period. Professionals enrolling in the entire certificate program in a single year will receive a 15 percent discount.

The five required courses include: Real Estate Finance: Fundamentals; Evaluating Real Estate Markets; Real Estate Finance: Advanced; Commercial Real Estate Development and Global Real Estate Markets.

"The collaboration between the MIT Center for Real Estate and MIT Professional Education creates an exciting opportunity," Albert Saiz, director of MIT Center for Real Estate, said in a statement. "We expect our real estate professional classes to provide real value to a global audience of executives, top-notch and knowledge-thirsty upward professionals and to provide training opportunities for large organizations seeking to educate and inspire their most-talented human assets."