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As equity markets decline, bonds and REITs (Real Estate Investment Trusts) become more appealing to investors. Although REITs stocks are equity based their continual return is more bond‐like in nature. This article addresses the analyses process for investing in real estate based equities.

A variety of papers have analyzed the underpricing of REIT IPOs or property company IPOs. The purpose of this paper is to compare the two sectors and examines differences in the underpricing of the two types of IPOs.

An OLS regression is used to identify factors influencing the underpricing of A-REIT and property company IPOs from 1994 until 2014.

This study finds that A-REIT IPOs have a significantly lower underpricing on average than Australian property company IPOs. The time taken to list appears to influence the underpricing of both A-REIT IPOs and property company IPOs, in that issues that are filled more quickly have higher underpricing but with the magnitude of the impact being less for A-REITs. The sentiment toward the stock market also appears to impact on the underpricing of A-REIT and property company IPOs again with the magnitude of the impact being less for A-REITs.

The paper provides information to new A-REIT and property company issuers, underwriters and investors.

The study is the first to compare and examine the differences in the underpricing of both REITs and property companies in the one country over the same time period.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically examine the effect on US stock, bond and real estate investment trust (REIT) prices triggered by the US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s announcement of a possible intent to unwind, or taper, quantitative easing (QE). In particular, the author assessed whether the effect of the “Taper Tantrum” was fundamental or financial on financial markets.

The methodology used to determine whether the effect of the “Taper Tantrum” was fundamental or purely financial is that suggested by French and Roll (1986) as extended by Tuluca et al. (2003). The analysis is based on daily data for large cap stocks, small cap stocks, long-term bonds and REITs for 18 months before Ben Bernanke’s announcement and for 18 months after the announcement.

The results show that the “Taper Tantrum” had a fundamental, rather than a financial effect on all asset classes, especially so for REITs.

The author also found that in the post-taper period following Ben Bernanke’s announcement the correlation of REITs with stocks decreased compared with pre-taper period, whereas the correlation of REITS with bonds increased substantially. In other words, the “Taper Tantrum” had a profound effect on the risk/return benefits of including REITs in the US mixed-asset portfolio.

This is the first paper to examine the effect of the “Taper Tantrum” on REITs.

Over 15 years ago Goodwin created the first open-ended, non-traded real estate investment trust (REIT) with regular sales and redemptions at net asset value (“NAV REIT”). While NAV REITs are now well established, there is still room for improvement.

We traced the evolution of the NAV REIT’s innovative, investor-friendly features – transparent valuation to strike NAV, liquidity via redemption at NAV per share, indefinite life, lower/simpler selling and management fees, share classes with different upfront loads and trailing distribution fees.

To improve the liquidity feature of NAV REITs, share classes could be used to lower the drag on performance and match available liquid assets with expected redemption requests. The goal: balance inflows and outflows, optimize portfolio construction, and better safeguard liquidity.

One need not look far for the dark side of liquidity in open-ended real estate funds. The UK experience with regulated property funds is a painful object lesson. There is a better way: while traditional non-traded REITs were designed and marketed for investment by retail investors, NAV REITs appeal to a diverse range of investors, and share classes could be enhanced to offer both a menu of selling loads and a menu of liquidity and dividend-rate options to produce a smooth curve blending cost and time.

Innovation in structuring real estate investment vehicles has broadened choices for all and the NAV REIT is flexible, scalable, open-ended and cost-efficient. Fund sponsors, fund managers, financial advisors, investors and even regulators could find food for thought in our analysis.

This paper examines the evolution and impact of property development activities on REIT performance. The paper provides insights on whether REITs should venture into property development in addition to their core-business of holding income producing properties.

This paper charts and highlights the evolution of development activities of US REITs from 1992 to 2020. The Tobin's Q of property developing REITs and non-property developing REITs are compared using univariate analysis.

Development activities of US REITs grew dramatically during the run up to global financial crisis (GFC) in 2008. The level of development activities has dropped since the GFC and it has not return to its pre-crisis peak. In comparison, development activities of listed property investment companies and homebuilders are less volatile over the same period. The data reveals that property developing REITs enjoy significantly higher Tobin's Q as compared to their non-developing counterparts.

Our graphical evidence from a market without development restriction suggests that development restriction in other REIT regimes has it value in limit REITs' excessive risk-taking tendency during a booming property market. The positive relationship between Tobin's Q and the existence of property development activity support the value creation of this business activity to REITs.

This paper raises overbuilding as a potential cause of the underperformance of the REIT sector during the GFC.

The purpose of this paper is to consider the operating performance of real estate investment trust initial public offerings (REIT IPOs) as a measure to find additional evidence of market timing in this sector.

A sample of REIT IPOs is analyzed to determine the relationship between IPO clustering and several measures of REIT operating performance.

The results suggest that timing the market by marginal firms in the REIT sector would be difficult, due to the transparent nature of REITs, leading to lower level of informational asymmetry between REIT managers and investors. Consistent with results found for non‐REIT firms in industry clusters, no evidence was found of a significant difference between the operating performance of REITs which are part of an IPO cluster and those that went public outside of the identified cluster periods.

This study shows that REIT market is efficient and would not allow REIT managers to time the market.

Using stringent measures of identifying REIT IPO clusters and operating performance as a measure to gauge market timing, this study differs from previous studies and provides additional and robust evidence of transparent nature of REITs that leads to reduced information asymmetry between managers and investors. This result supports the theory that REITs are more transparent and thus less likely to be over‐invested during IPO cluster periods.

Real estate investment trusts (REITs) are historically considered as attractive assets to investors particularly as the underlying assets are properties which are income-producing. REITs also distribute substantial amount of profits as dividends to shareholders. Stephen and Simon (2005) find that REITs in a mixed asset portfolio of stocks and bonds enhance returns and reduce risk. This paper examines the role a pandemic (COVID-19) plays in the performance of global REITs index and REIT sectors.

To examine the effects of COVID-19 on REITs, the year-to-date (YTD) returns of global returns index and REITs sectors in the United States are observed and a comparative analysis is employed from January 2020 to May 2020.

Based on a three-month return ending 22 May 2020, FTSE EPRA NAREIT index is the biggest loser at −31.83% whilst the FTSE EPRA Asia–Pacific index has the lowest loss at −23.20%. The author examines YTD returns which show disparities on the effect of COVID-19 on REIT sectors. The US market is examined; most REIT sectors suffered big losses as at April 2020; the analysis reveals YTD returns for the top three REIT sector losers are lodging/resort REITs (−45.81%), retail REITs (−41.16%) and office REITs (−22.63%). Data centre REITs are the only sector REITs with positive returns at 17.66%.

Most sector REITs during the pandemic have lost considerable value based on YTD returns as at May 2020. Flight to quality is expected during this uncertain period to REITs such as data REITs, grocery-anchored REITs and storage REITs. These REITs are not as adversely affected by COVID-19 in comparison to other REITs.

This paper identified the impact of COVID-19 on the performance of global REITs and US sector REITs during the periods from January 2020 to May 2020.

We examined the dynamic volatility connectedness and diversification strategies among US real estate investment trusts (REITs) and green finance indices.

The DCC-GARCH dynamic connectedness framework and he DCC-GARCH t-copula model were employed in this study.

Using daily data from 2,206 observations spanning from 2 January 2015 to 31 January 2023 this paper presents the following findings: (1) cross-market spillovers exhibited a high correlation and significant fluctuations, particularly during extreme events; (2) our analysis confirmed that REIT acted as net receivers from other green indices, with the S&P North America Large-MidCap Carbon Efficient Index dominating the in-network volatility spillover; (3) this observation suggests asymmetric spillovers between the two markets and (4) a portfolio analysis was conducted using the DCC-GARCH t-copula framework to estimate hedging ratios and portfolio weights for these indices. When REIT and the Dow Jones US Select ESG REIT Index were simultaneously added to a risk-hedged portfolio, our findings indicated that no risk-hedging effect could be achieved. Moreover, the cost and performance of hedging green assets using REIT were found to be comparable.

We first examined the dynamic volatility connectedness and diversification strategies among US REITs and green finance indices. The outcomes of this study carry practical implications for market participants.

This paper aims to explore the dynamic relationship between ESG scores and REITS returns. The overarching goal is to provide a better understanding of how ESG considerations impact financial performance across different temporal contexts.

Using a sample of 175 European Equity REITs, this analysis combines numerical ESG scores with the Fama-French model, employing both random and fixed effects methods. It integrates individual REIT data and the HESGL (High ESG Scores Minus Low ESG Scores) factors to assess their impact on REIT returns.

The findings highlight divergent patterns between the numerical ESG score and the HESGL factor concerning REIT returns. While the numerical ESG score displays a negative impact in later periods, the HESGL factor demonstrates a positive effect during prosperous times but loses significance during crises.

This research contributes original insights by emphasizing the importance of temporal segmentation in understanding the nuanced and evolving nature of the relationship between ESG scores and REITs’ returns. The study provides a comprehensive analysis and highlights divergent outcomes that are essential for a better interpretation of ESG impacts on real estate investments.

This study aims to address a notable gap in the existing literature by exploring the relationship between gender diversity and dividend policy within the context of US Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs).

The authors use a substantial data set comprising 1,398 firm-year observations across 209 US REIT companies from 2011 to 2021 to address the research aims. Fixed effects models and generalized least squares regression methods are used in the analysis.

The results demonstrate a significant positive association between board gender diversity and higher dividend payouts among US REITs. This relationship holds after controlling for corporate governance and other firm-level factors. The findings have strong implications that the presence of women on REIT boards contributes to a greater propensity for discretionary dividend increases in the USA.

This research contributes to the literature by empirically examining female directors’ role in influencing US REITs’ dividend policies, an area lacking adequate prior scholarship. The paper also considers the unique regulatory environment of REITs, highlighting the importance of the study for externally financed firms.