Volatility Decomposition and Correlation in International Securitized Real Estate Markets

This study contributes to the literature in international securitized real estate market volatility in three ways. Each market’s conditional volatility is decomposed into a “permanent” or long-run component and a “transitory” or short-run component via a component-GARCH model. Even though with the same number of common factors derived from the “permanent” and “transitory” volatility series, their loadings are not similar and consequently the long-run and short-run volatility linkages for some markets are different. Finally there are significant volatility co-movements between real estate and stock markets’ “permanent” and “transitory” components suggesting that real estate markets are at least not segmented from stock markets in international investing.     

Volatility Spillovers, Comovements and Contagion in Securitized Real Estate Markets

This paper analyzes the relationships between local and global securitized real estate markets, but also between securitized real estate and common stock markets. First, the volatility transmissions across markets are examined using an asymmetric t-BEKK (Baba-Engle-Kraft-Kroner) specification of their covariance matrix. Second, correlations from that model and tail dependences estimated using a time-varying copula framework are analyzed to assess whether different dynamics underlie the comovements in the whole distribution and those in the tails. Third, we investigate market contagion by testing for structural changes in the tail dependences. We use data for the U.S., the U.K. and Australia for the period 1990–2010 as a basis for our analyses. Spillover effects are found to be the largest in the U.S., both domestically and internationally. Further, comovements in tail distributions between markets appear to be quite important. We also document different dynamics between the conditional tail dependences and correlations. Finally, we find evidence of market contagion between the U.S. and the U.K. markets following the subprime crisis.     

Multiple Regimes and Volatility Transmission in Securitized Real Estate Markets

We examine the dynamics and transmission of conditional volatilities with multiple structural changes in return volatility using Bai and Perron (2003)’s methodology, across five major securitized real estate markets as well as employing a multivariate regime-dependent asymmetric dynamic covariance methodology (MRDADC) that allows the conditional matrix to be both time- and state-varying. Our results imply that a multiple-regime time varying asymmetric variance and covariance approach is important in modeling real estate securities valuation and selection and portfolio optimization, and is consistent with popular beliefs that market volatility changes over time. Our MRDADC models detect the presence of significant mean-volatility linkages across the five major securitized real estate markets under different volatility regimes and would have implications for global investor in terms of estimating a dynamic risk-minimizing hedge ratio in international portfolio management.     

Correlation and Volatility Dynamics in International Real Estate Securities Markets

We study international correlation and volatility dynamics of publicly traded real estate securities using monthly returns from 1984 and 2006. We also examine, for comparison, the correlations among the corresponding stock markets. A multivariate dynamic conditional correlation model captures the time-varying correlation within the full period. We confirm lower correlations between all real estate securities market returns than those between the stock market returns themselves. Some significant variations and structural changes in the correlation structure happened within the sample period. We detect a strong and positive connection between real estate securities market correlations and their conditional volatilities. We also find the international correlation structure of real estate securities and the broader stock market are linked to each other. Our results have economic motivations regarding the potential integration of international real estate securities markets and the possibility of including information on changing correlations and volatilities to design more optimal portfolios for international real estate securities.

Long-Term Co-Memories and Short-Run Adjustment: Securitized Real Estate and Stock Markets

This study considers whether securitized real estate and stock markets have long-term co-memories and implications for short-term adjustment. Our results offer reasonable support for fractional cointegration (characteristic of a long memory process) between securitized real estate price, stock market price and key macroeconomic factors in some economies. The implication is that where fractional cointegration prevails, securitized real estate and common stocks are substitutable assets over the long run and these assets may not be held together in a portfolio for diversification purpose. Furthermore, short-run analysis indicates that the speed of adjustment towards the long-run equilibrium is faster for fractional integrated vector error correction model (FIVECM) than VECM as the former incorporates a long history of past cointegration residuals. Additional comparisons of the two models’ forecasting accuracy show that incorporating fractional cointegration in a VECM model improves the forecasting performance over conventional VECM models. Our results reinforce the notion that cointegration, fractional cointegration and short-run adjustment dynamics are important in understanding market integration/segmentation.     

Long-term Memory in Volatility: Some Evidence from International Securitized Real Estate Markets

While the long memory property is examined in the literature for the US REIT returns, this paper extends the analysis to international securitized real estate markets with the hope of finding answers or confirming prior stock market evidence regarding the presence (or absence) of long memory volatilities for 40 weekly real estate indices (original and hedged). Using a battery of five econometric tests on three alternative risk measures; weekly observed absolute and squared mean deviations and conditional variances, we find statistically significant evidence of long memory in the volatility structure of most securitized real estate markets studied. Volatility persistence is particularly strong in Asia, but is not consistent throughout the period of study.     

U.S. Monetary Policy Surprises and International Securitized Real Estate Markets

This paper examines the impact of U.S. monetary policy surprises on securitized real estate markets in 18 countries. The policy surprises are measured by both the surprise changes to the target federal funds rate (the target factor) and surprises in the future direction of the Federal Reserve monetary policy (the path factor). The results show that most international securitized real estate markets have significantly positive responses to surprise decrease in current or future expected federal funds rates, though such responses vary greatly across countries. Also, while the U.S. securitized real estate market reacts mainly to the target factor, foreign securitized real estate markets react to the path factor. Furthermore, we find that the cross-country variation in the response to the target factor is correlated with the country’s exchange rate regime and its degree of real economic and particularly financial integration, while the cross-country variation in the response to the path factor is mainly related to the country’s degree of financial integration.     

Asymmetric Price and Volatility Adjustments in Emerging Asian Stock Markets

This paper tests the hypothesis that stock returns in emerging stock markets adjust asymmetrically to past information. The evidence suggests that both the conditional mean and the conditional variance respond asymmetrically to past information. In agreement with studies dealing with developed stock markets, the conditional variance is an asymmetrical function of past innovations, rising proportionately more during market declines. More importantly, the conditional mean is also an asymmetrical function of past returns. Specifically, positive past returns are more persistent than negative past returns of an equal magnitude. This behaviour is consistent with an asymmetric partial adjustment price model where news suggesting overpricing (negative returns) are incorporated faster into current prices than news suggesting underpricing (positive returns). Furthermore, the asymmetric adjustment of prices to past information could be partially responsible for the asymmetries in the conditional variance if the degree of adjustment and the level of volatility are positively related.     

Volatility Transmission in the Real Estate Spot and Forward Markets

How shocks in one market influence the returns and volatility of other markets has been an important question for portfolio managers. In the finance literature, many studies found evidence of volatility spillovers across international markets, as well as between spot and futures markets. Although real estate is often regarded as a good vehicle for diversification, the dynamics of its volatility transmission have been largely ignored. This paper provides the first study to examine volatility spillovers between the spot and forward (pre-sale) index returns of the Hong Kong real estate market through a bivariate GARCH model. Transaction-based indices were used so that our volatility modelling was free from any smoothing problem. Our results showed that real estate returns exhibited volatility clustering, and the volatility of the forward market was more sensitive to shocks than the spot market. Moreover, volatility was mainly transmitted from the forward market to the spot market, but not vice versa.

Dynamics of Private and Public Real Estate Markets

Using five assets (T-bills, bonds, stocks, and both public and private real estate), this study investigates how cointegration of capital markets affects the dynamics of public and private real estate markets. The results show that the price indices of the five assets are nonstationary and cointegrated. Some implications for the long-term equilibrium relationship for portfolio diversification, price discovery and prediction are discussed. In a Granger causality framework, error-correction augmented VAR models (VECM) and unrestricted VAR models are compared with respect to the conclusion regarding the interaction between public and private real estate returns. VECM is also shown to improve the prediction of private real estate returns relative to an unrestricted VAR model. These results raise questions about previous research studies regarding the dynamics between public and private real estate returns. It is shown that the long-term equilibrium relationship establishes a feedback between the two real estate markets, but the private market seems to informationally lead the public one. Possible explanations are also explored.     

The Causal Relationship Between Real Estate and Stock Markets

This paper examines the dynamic relationship that exists between the US real estate and S&P 500 stock markets between the years of 1972 to 1998. This is achieved by conducting both linear and nonlinear causality tests. The results from these tests provide a number of interesting observations which primarily show linear relationships to be spuriously affected by structural shifts which are inherent within the data. Linear test results generally show a uni-directional relationship to exist from the real estate market to the stock market. However, these results are not consistent with financial theory and for all sub-samples of the data. In contrast, the nonlinear causality test shows a strong unidirectional relationship running from the stock market to the real estate market, and is consistent in the presence of any structural breaks.     

Fractional Cointegration Analysis of Securitized Real Estate

This paper uses fractional cointegration analysis to examine whether long-run relations exist between securitized real estate returns and three sets of variables frequently used in the literature as the factors driving securitized real estate returns. That is, we examine whether such relationships are characterized by long memory (long-range dependence), short memory (short-range dependence), mean reversion (no long-run effects) or no mean reversion (no long-run equilibrium). The forecasting implications are also considered. Empirical analyses are conducted using data for the U.S., the U.K., and Australia. We find strong evidence of fractional cointegration between securitized real estate and the three sets of variables. Such relationships are mainly characterized by short memory although long memory is sometimes present. The use of fractional cointegration for forecasting purposes proves particularly useful since the start of the financial crisis.     

Real Options,Volatility, and Stock Returns

We provide evidence that the positive relation between firm‐level stock returns and firm‐level return volatility is due to firms’ real options. Consistent with real option theory, we find that the positive volatility‐return relation is much stronger for firms with more real options and that the sensitivity of firm value to changes in volatility declines significantly after firms exercise their real options. We reconcile the evidence at the aggregate and firm levels by showing that the negative relation at the aggregate level may be due to aggregate market conditions that simultaneously affect both market returns and return volatility.     

Foreign Property Shocks and the Impact on Domestic Securitized Real Estate Markets: An Unobserved Components Approach

As the globalization of world financial markets continues unabated the issue of benefits arising from international diversification becomes increasingly important. Due to the fixed geographical nature of the underlying product, securitized property might be considered immune from the effects of globalization, and to this extent researchers have considered the issue of international property market interdependence using a variety of statistical procedures. In this paper the question of interdependence across securitized property markets is examined by combining the Inoue (1999) cointegration methodology with the structural time series procedure of Harvey (1989). In the event of commonality of movement across property markets, this approach permits the researcher to isolate and visualize common movement, an operation that may be helpful to a portfolio manager trying to understand cross market activity. The results indicate that there is some unifying force across international property markets and that this unifying force may stem from the United States. The results also suggest that, at least to some extent, shocks to securitized property markets produce a similar response to stock market shocks.     

Extreme Correlation of Stock and Bond Futures Markets: International Evidence

This study explores time‐varying extreme correlation of stock–bond futures markets in three major developed countries. In the United States and the United Kingdom, there is evidence of positive extreme stock–bond correlation when both futures markets are extremely bullish or bearish. In Germany, stock–bond futures extreme correlation is negative, suggesting the most diversification potentials of bond futures when German stock index futures market plunges. Macroeconomic news, the business cycle, and the stock market uncertainty all significantly affect the median stock–bond futures correlation. However, only the stock market uncertainty still significantly affects the extreme stock–bond futures correlation when the stock market is extremely bearish.     

Volatility Reversion and Correlation Structure of Returns in Major International Stock Markets

This paper investigates the stochastic behavior of weekly stock market returns in the U.S., Japan, and the U.K. during the period 1984 to 1994. The analysis is carried out using an augmented version of Bollerslev's [7] multivariate GARCH model with structural dummies to test for differences in the mean, volatility, and covariance structure of returns during the pre- and post-October 1987 crash periods. In addition, the paper explores the issue of the volatility reversion and time-varying behavior of correlation structure of returns in these markets. Mean-spillovers exist from the U.S. and Japan to the U.K. The magnitude of these spillovers is, however, low. Volatility spillovers exist from the U.S. and, to a lesser extent, from Japan to the U.K. Mean returns in all three markets and volatility in Japan and the U.K. are the same during the two periods, while volatility in the U.S. is lower during the post-crash period. With the exception of the correlation of returns between Japan and the U.K., which has doubled since the October 1987 crash, the remaining correlations are statistically similar during the two periods. Simulations performed indicate that volatility is reverting in the sense that, when it departs from its long-run equilibrium level, it tends to revert back to that level.     

The Relative Importance of Stock, Bond and Real Estate Factors in Explaining REIT Returns

This paper examines the link between REIT, financial asset and real estate returns, and tests whether it changed subsequent to the “REIT boom” of the early 1990s. The main focus is on answering the question do REIT returns now better reflect the performance of underlying direct (unsecuritized) real estate? We develop and implement a variance decomposition for REIT returns that separates REIT return variability into components directly related to major stock, bond, and real estate-related return indices, as well as idiosyncratic or sector-specific effects. This is applied to aggregate REIT sector (NAREIT) returns as well as returns to size and property-type based REIT portfolios. Our results show that the REIT market went from being driven largely by the same economic factors that drive large cap stocks through the 1970s and 1980s to being more strongly related to both small cap stock and real estate-related factors in the 1990s. There is also a steady increase over time in the proportion of volatility not accounted for by stock, bond or real estate related factors. We also find that small cap REITs are “more like real estate” compared to larger cap REITs, at least over the 1993–1998 period. We argue that this could be a result of the institutionalization of the ownership of larger cap REITs that took place in the 1990s.     

The Friday Effect in European Securitized Real Estate Index Returns

This study extends research on the day-of-the-week effect towards European real estate indices. We examine this anomaly for several European securitized real estate index returns between 1990 and 2003. Although the countries under analysis have unique country-specific patterns, we find that eight out of eleven European countries exhibit abnormally high Friday returns. Moreover, two different Europe indices also exhibit the Friday anomaly. The anomaly is robust with respect to extreme observations, alternative specifications and several well-known calendar effects.     

Risk-Hedging in Real Estate Markets

Topics in real estate markets have attracted much attention recently. In this article, we first address the risk-hedging issues of speculators based on an American put option pricing model, and then investigate their risk-hedging behaviors using a generalized swing option so as to take capacity effects into account. Semi-analytic solutions are derived, and examples are presented. Results have important implications in the real estate markets and contribute to the operational research literature on risk measuring and risk management.     

Credit Availability and Asset Pricing Dynamics in Illiquid Markets: Evidence from Commercial Real Estate Markets

This article examines credit frictions and asset pricing in public and private markets with varying liquidity. We find that a tightening in credit availability is negatively related to subsequent price movements in private and public commercial real estate markets. Assets trading in illiquid segments of these markets are also susceptible to a feedback effect whereby changes in asset prices predict subsequent changes in credit availability. Controlling for investor demand, our findings suggest credit constraints play an economically significant asset pricing role in markets that are both highly levered and relatively illiquid.