Investment decision-making under economic policy uncertainty

It is widely established that economic policy uncertainty (EPU) affects investment decisions and performance, yet research in this area has overlooked the direct property investment market. This article seeks to rectify this and proposes a multistage multilevel analytical framework to offer new insights and a richness of findings. Using a news-based measure of EPU in the United Kingdom, and controlling for economic conditions, a national-level analysis reveals some evidence of Granger-Causality between EPU and total returns, indicating that pricing is responsive to uncertainty. These findings suggest that EPU is an important risk factor for direct property investments, with pricing implications. Differences in data and performance measure are important, however, with income returns unresponsive. A micro-level investigation begins to reveal some of the asset-pricing decisions underpinning the national results, indicating investors’ concerns for income streams are consistently high, regardless of varying EPU. Pricing can also cause changes in EPU, such as in the retail and industrial markets (increasingly linked through logistics) reflecting sector-specific stakeholder groups and newsworthy issues. This evidence highlights how important it is for policy-makers to understand the complex and bi-directional relationship, that indecision can undermine investment confidence and cause investment market volatility, in turn raising EPU.     

The 4% rule: Does real estate make a difference?

This paper examines the wealth maximisation and preservation effects of including commercial real estate in retirement-phase portfolio management. Prior research addresses the role of real estate during the wealth-accumulation phase of the investor lifecycle; however, little is known about the contribution of real estate during the invest-and-spend, or decumulation, phase. To address this issue, we estimate short-fall risk based on the widely known 4% Rule. We use pricing data for multiple asset classes and simulation techniques, combined with a robust correlation structure, to examine: short-fall risk sensitivity to alternative spending rules; the impact of public vs. private real estate allocations; wealth preservation as an investment objective; and the effect of real estate on upside, or wealth maximisation, potential. We find short-fall risk in a decumulation portfolio decreases with substantial allocations to real estate. This result holds for a portfolio including either public or private real estate. Additionally, and under most conditions, the best performing decumulation-phase portfolios include a real estate allocation with both public and private real estate exposure. These results have significant implications for investors, whether they be retirees, plan administrators or endowments, as well as financial economists studying the lifecycle of investment decisions.     

房地产市场有效性研究综述

研究目的:综述房地产市场有效性的研究成果。研究方法:文献回顾法、归纳法。研究结论:有效性是市场研究的重要内容。自从市场有效性概念提出后,尤其是Fama将市场有效性分为三类后,关于市场有效性的实证检验渐多。但主要是集中在对金融市场有效性的研究上。国外对房地产市场有效性的研究主要是从投资角度进行的,研究主要集中在两个方面:一是对采用数据的研究;二是对某一市场的有效性进行检验。国内对市场有效性的研究历史很短,主要是运用已有的方法对中国资本市场有效性的研究。对房地产市场有效性的研究,多半将重点放在规范性研究上,主要集中在制度完善和发展趋势的定性研究上,对房地产市场有效性达到什么程度还没有正面的定量研究。     

跨国房地产投资的动因及其风险分析

随着经济全球化的不断深入以及新兴国家房地产业的火爆发展,房地产投资全球化发展的趋势将不可逆转。在当前国际经济一体化环境下,跨国房地产投资主要动因是扩大市场机会、追求高额收益和分散风险;总体来看,跨国房地产投资的风险:一是国家风险,二是市场风险,三是交易风险。文章指出新兴国家在保护国内房地产业和国民经济发展的宏观调控上,必须要引起足够的重视,并对新兴国家的宏观调控提出了两方面的建议。     

Forecasting real estate prices in Germany: the role of consumer confidence

The aim of the paper is to analyse the forecasting ability of various potential predictors for real estate prices in Germany over the short term. In the wake of the financial crisis, real estate prices in Germany started to increase markedly and still did so by the end of 2013. Despite a number of fundamental reasons, e.g. favourable lending conditions and Germany’s rapid return to economic growth, this provoked a discussion on whether consumers have too gloomy expectations regarding real estate prices in future. To capture the role of expectations for predicting real estate prices, in our forecast evaluation, we put special emphasis on various components of consumer confidence. Using single indicator models, we find that households’ perceived financial situations as well as their intended consumption/saving plans serve as valuable real estate price predictors.