An Examination of Macroeconomic Effects on the Liquidity of REITs

In this research, we investigate the effects of changes in and levels of selected macroeconomic variables on the liquidity of Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT, henceforth) stocks. We study in particular REIT market trading liquidity and REIT funding liquidity. We use debt service coverage ratios, loan-to-value ratios and the number of loans on commercial commitments as proxies for the funding liquidity of REITs. We use Amihud Illiquidity measurement and Turnover Ratio measurement to estimate REIT market trading liquidity. Our results are fourfold: one, funding liquidity is influenced by changes in macroeconomic factors; two, macroeconomic effects are different across phases of the business cycle; three, funding liquidity is significantly positively related to REIT market liquidity (this is supportive of Brunnermeier and Petersen’s Review of Financial Studies, 22:2201–2238 (2009) findings); and four, these effects vary across economic regimes. A key outcome of this work is that increases in debt to equity reduce market liquidity for REIT stocks.