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US commercial property is an important investment opportunity for institutional investors. The purpose of this paper is to assess the significance, risk-adjusted performance and portfolio diversification benefits of US commercial property (both direct property and REITs) in a mixed-asset portfolio over 1994-2016. The 2009-2016 post-GFC recovery of US commercial property is specifically highlighted.

Using quarterly total returns, the risk-adjusted performance and portfolio diversification benefits of US commercial property over 1994-2016 are assessed. Efficient frontier and asset allocation diagrams are used to assess the role of US commercial property in a mixed-asset portfolio. Sub-period analysis over 2009-2016 is used to assess the post-GFC recovery of US commercial property.

US commercial property delivered mixed results over 1994-2016; direct property gave the best risk-adjusted performance, while US-REITs performance was hampered by high volatility. Since the GFC, both forms of US commercial property have delivered stronger risk-adjusted returns with improved diversification benefits, especially in the context of an inter-property investment strategy. However, US-REITs did not improve their diversification benefits with the stock market over this period. This sees US commercial property as an important component in the US mixed-asset portfolio in the post-GFC environment, with a much stronger role exhibited by US direct property in the post-GFC mixed-asset portfolio.

US commercial property emerged from the GFC as a stronger and more robust property investment opportunity, with both the direct property and US-REITs fully recovered to their pre-GFC performance level in 2012. The results highlight the major role of US commercial property in a US mixed-asset portfolio in the post-GFC context. The superior risk-adjusted performance of US commercial property sees both direct and listed US commercial property contributing significantly to the mixed-asset portfolio throughout the entire risk-return spectrum, particularly direct property. Given the increased capital flows into the US property market since the GFC, this is particularly important as many investors, both local and international, use direct and listed property investment opportunities as conduits for their significant US commercial property exposure.

This paper is the first published empirical research analysis that specifically assessed the post-GFC performance and role of US commercial property in a mixed-asset portfolio. This research enables empirically validated, more informed and practical property investment decision making by institutional investors regarding the strategic role of US commercial property in a mixed-asset portfolio in a post-GFC context.

It is becoming increasingly clear that as the pressures of climate change increase around the world, all nations must strive to lower their carbon footprint through conservation. If the growth trend of green building and infrastructure construction is to be continued and improved upon, then evidence must be collected as to the benefits they bring about, and the level of support they enjoy in the market. The purpose of this paper is to shed light on the economic performance of green buildings by evaluating whether LEED for Homes and BOMA-BEST properties capture higher market valuations and lower vacancy rates. These types of research questions have not been investigated to a great deal in the Canadian context. The primary analysis concerning municipal market valuation of green buildings was conducted using robust ordinary least squares and logistic regression models. Commercial vacancy rates were compared through the use of χ² tests. Our analysis did not lead to conclusive evidence that there exists a “green” premium in the real estate market with respect to municipal market valuations. The authors argue that this may largely be due to municipal appraisal methods that currently do not incorporate sustainability factors. As such, they may not adequately reflect market tastes and trends. Furthermore, while the vacancy rates of green commercial buildings were, on the whole, lower than their non-green counterparts, the differences were not statistically significant. Given these results, the authors propose a set of research activities that the academic community should pursue.

Statistical techniques are utilized test whether green certification (LEED/BOMA-BEST) leads to higher municipal valuation for both commercial and residential green properties, using regression analysis. Furthermore, χ² tests are conducted to evaluate whether certification leads to lower vacancy rates for commercial properties.

In terms of valuation, certification does not exert (on average) a positive role in terms of higher valuations for both commercial and residential properties. However, with respect to vacancy rates, there is a tendency towards lower vacancy rates for green properties, but the relationship is not statistically significant.

The next set of research needs to gather greater amount of data with respect to how municipal evaluations are performed since the results are counter-intuitive. Greater tracking of the financial performance of green buildings should be conducted and made available for both public and private bodies. Particularly, rental and sale prices of green buildings need to be tracked in an organized manner.

The valuation techniques utilized by the municipal authorities need revision as green properties are being assessed without appropriate guidance from educational institutions. Furthermore, the limited amount of “green” valuation techniques in existence may not be applied.

This is the first Canadian-based research looking into the valuation of green certification using rigorous quantitative statistical techniques and original and publicly available data. Furthermore, it holds important lessons for municipal authorities with respect to green building valuation beyond Canada as the limitations of current practice go mostly likely beyond the North American context.

Property markets are considered efficient when the market price of a transacted property equates with its market worth. If this condition holds then identical properties should sell or let for the same price. However, properties are heterogeneous, and information and operational constraints exist. Consequently, events in the transaction process and factors like time on the market, buyer and seller psychology and agent behaviour influence property prices, whereas in a perfectly efficient market they would have no impact. This gives rise to similar units selling for different prices. This paper examines the relationships between commercial property prices and time on the market for property. Tests fail to find evidence of a direct relationship between time on the market and transacted rents, time on the market and asking rents, and asking rents with transacted rents. The reason for the insignificant results could be because landlords would rather offer potential tenants non‐price incentives such as rent‐free periods, rent break clauses, shorter leases or fitting‐out costs to achieve a faster let than discount the agreed contractual rent. A more detailed examination of the physical, location and market conditions that determine the expected time on the market for a property to let is undertaken. Results suggest that the state of the property market is an important influence on the time it takes to let a property, and concurs with the evidence found in housing studies. With the support of our empirical findings and evidence from the housing market, we conclude that including measures of non‐price incentives, landlords’ motivation, tenants’ characteristics, and search costs in our model may explain the relationship more fully.

Both neoclassical and Keynesian economists have widely favored the use of equilibrium models to understand economic activity, but dramatic periods of change such as the current global economic downturn are poorly understood by assuming equilibrium. The economist Joseph Schumpeter tried to inject dynamism and disequilibrium into economic models by arguing for the role of entrepreneurs in creating microeconomic change, and for examining long-term macroeconomic change as represented in business cycles. No economist, including Schumpeter, has ever connected these two approaches to change and these approaches are not typically used as alternative and complementary ways of viewing transformation over time. We suggest that these theories can be connected in a “mesoeconomic” institutional analysis rooted in economic sociology; we demonstrate this connection by examining the US commercial building industry. This industry has changed in qualitatively distinct ways over the past two centuries in what we call market orders, economic orders sometimes lasting for decades or more. In each market order, entrepreneurs of different sorts are able to flourish and push forward institutional changes that result in long-term economic shifts. Credit and finance have been pivotal influences in each market order, a factor supporting Schumpeter's focus on entrepreneurial action and speculation and one not largely discussed today. We view the recent disruption of financial markets as a signal of the destruction of a reigning market order.

This study aims to investigate the dynamic interaction between interest rates and commercial property financing offered by Islamic banks in Malaysia.

The authors use the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) cointegration methodology to analyse the short- and long-run effect of the interest rates and rental rates on commercial property financing of Islamic banks in Malaysia between 2010: Q1 and 2018: Q2.

The findings reveal that changes in interest rates affect Islamic commercial property financing. This indicates that Islamic banks still rely on interest rates as a benchmark without fully implementing Islamic rental rates. This corroborates the subsequent finding, where overnight policy rates influence commercial property financing.

Despite the authors’ attempt to provide insights into Islamic commercial property financing, the study is limited to secondary data; further research can use survey information to obtain other details that are not included in this study. Similarly, this study does not cover the operation and financial lease debate in Musharakah Mutanaqisah. Future studies can examine the challenges faced by the financial institution towards implementing rental rates in other emerging and developing countries using a different methodology.

This study is the first to investigate the dynamic changes in overnight policy rates, average lending rates and rental rates on Islamic commercial property financing in Malaysia using ARDL techniques. The authors uncover the research and institutional implications of Islamic commercial property financing rates and provide policy and future research directions coupled with the proposed modified rental rate to be developed.

Notes that, in the UK, there has been little empirical research undertaken to consider the effect of the commercial property tax (more commonly known as non‐domestic rates) on the level of openly negotiated market rents. Seeks, through the analysis of a large set of panel data obtained from the Investment Property Databank and the Valuation Office Agency, to develop econometric models which can measure the effect that an increase in non‐domestic rates has on commercial rents and ultimately the effective incidence of non‐domestic rates. Draws a number of conclusions, the most significant being that changes in rates bills prompt changes in commercial property rents in the opposite direction. Notes that this conclusion may, in the longer term, have an effect on the type and indeed the timing of government assistance to business occupiers through transitional relief schemes.

Correlation coefficients measuring the historical relationships of returns on commercial property and both equities and conventional gilts appear to be low. Conversely, the correlation between gilts and equities appears to be relatively high. This implies that property provides diversification benefits to a mixed asset portfolio dominated by equities and gilts. However, there is some debate as to the reliability of these correlations and property’s diversification benefits. In this paper we use Granger causality tests and cointegration techniques to demonstrate that there is no long‐run relationship between property returns and those of either gilts or equities. This confirms the diversification benefits of including property in a mixed asset portfolio.

Residential property in a multi‐asset portfolio context has been considered from two substantially different perspectives: institutional investor's and the household's perspective. This paper constitutes the first of two related surveys on the role of residential property in a multi‐asset portfolio. The paper provides an introduction to housing property investment at a macro level and reviews the main empirical issues related to housing investment in an institutional portfolio context. The literature in this regard generally supports the evidence that residential property is a more effective hedge against inflation than both shares and bonds. Additionally, the reviewed studies generally report that unsecuritised housing investment not only generates risk‐adjusted returns comparable to those of bonds and shares, but also exhibits low levels of correlation with classic asset groups of institutional portfolios.