Bryan MacGregor

Appraisal smoothing and price discovery in real estate markets

This paper reviews the literature on price determination in the private and public real estate markets. In particular, it discusses the processes of appraisal smoothing in the private market and of price discovery between the public and the private markets. In real estate markets, the absence of good quality information on price, whether because of lack of trades or confidentiality, has led to the widespread use of appraisals for market tracking and as the basis for performance measurement. Appraisers have to make an optimum assessment of value, based on fundamental variables and market information, including transactions and a market-wide appraisal index. However, transaction prices are a noisy signal and it is the appraisers role to extract the signal from the noise in an efficient manner. This involves a process of optimal combination of past and current information and leads to appraisal smoothing. Price discovery is the process by which the opinions of market participants about the value of an asset are combined together into a single statistic—its market price. A development of this basic concept is where two markets have a common component of value and the relevant price information is discovered first in one market and then transmitted to the second market. The process of price discovery is considered between the public and private real estate markets.

Estimation of the Rental Adjustment Process

Rental adjustment equations have been estimated for a quarter century. In the U.S., models have used the deviation of the actual vacancy rate from the natural rate as the main explanatory variable, while in the UK, drivers of the demand for space have dominated the estimation. The recent papers of Hendershott (1996) and Hendershott, Lizieri and Matysiak (HLM, 1999) fall into the former category. We re-estimate these equations using alternative formulations but can do little to improve them overall. However, we identify econometric concerns with the specifications. We then derive a model incorporating both supply and demand factors within an Error Correction framework, and show how the U.S. and UK traditions are special cases of this more general formulation. We next estimate this equation using data from the City of London office market. Our initial specification of this more generalized model is greatly superior to the vacancy rate model. Finally, we estimate a two-equation variant with a separate vacancy rate equation; this model also performs much better than that of HLM. Importantly, our model passes standard modern econometric requirements for unit roots and co-integration. We find little evidence of special or temporal variation in natural vacancy rates.

The Inflation Hedging Characteristics of US and UK Investments: A Multi-Factor Error Correction Approach

Historic analysis of the inflation hedging properties of stocks has produced anomalous results, with stocks often appearing to offer a perverse hedge. This has been attributed to the impact of real and monetary shocks to the economy, which influence both inflation and asset returns. It has been argued that real estate should provide a better hedge: however, empirical results have been mixed. This paper explores the relationship between commercial real estate returns and economic, fiscal and monetary factors and inflation for US and UK markets. Comparative analysis of general equity and small capitalization stock returns is carried out with inflation divided into expected and unexpected components. The analyses are undertaken using an error correction approach. In the long run, once real and monetary variables are included, asset returns are positively linked to anticipated inflation but not to inflation shocks. Adjustment processes are, however, gradual and not within period. Real estate returns, particularly private market returns, exhibit characteristics that differ from those of stocks.

Real estate portfolio diversification by property type and region

Analyses data from the USA and UK to determine whether diversification within a region by property type is better than diversification between regions within a property type. Compares both strategies to full diversification by both property type and region. Calculates and compares property type and regional correlation matrices. Produces efficient frontiers and calculates principal components to determine if there are dominant property type or regional dimensions to real estate returns. Suggests that for the USA a purely retail portfolio diversified over all regions would have been almost as effective as a fully diversified portfolio. In the UK, there is less diversity across regions within retail property. Overall, there is no simple conclusion applicable to all regions and all property types in either country.

Explaining Real Commercial Rents using an Error Correction Model with Panel Data

This paper presents rent models for retail and office property in the United Kingdom. Panel data are used covering eleven regions for 29 years, enabling us to overcome the limitations of a relatively short time series. We use an error correction model (ECM) framework to estimate long-run equilibrium relationships and short-term dynamic corrections. The combination of panel data and an ECM is an innovative approach that is still being developed in economics. We construct new supply series that combine infrequent stock data with more frequent construction data. Separate regional models are estimated for retail and office properties. The regions are then combined into a number of panels on the basis of the income and price elasticities in the long-run and short-run models. Unlike previous studies, we find no evidence of a board north–south divide between low growth and high growth regions. Like these studies we do find a London effect: in London, demand elasticities for space with respect to both price (rent) and income are much lower in magnitude. We conclude that, while the economic drivers may vary, there is no evidence of differences in the operation of the regional property markets outside London. Elasticities for retail and office are similar. Our final models are parsimonious with single measures of economic activity and of supply and always support the use of an ECM.

Price discovery in the Hong Kong real estate market

This paper examines price discovery for four sectors of the Hong Kong property market. The Hong Kong property market is one of the deepest and most liquid markets in the world. In addition, a substantial proportion of the real estate sector is securitized in the local share market. This makes Hong Kong one of the better places to examine price discovery. The results show that the returns to securitized real estate in Hong Kong are a mirror of broader international capital market movements. Once international capital market variables are included in the regressions, the returns to securitized real estate in Hong Kong convey little information about the appraisal-based returns to Hong Kong real estate. In addition, the results show that both capital market variables and local economic variables are significant for explaining the appraisal-based returns to Hong Kong property. The two sets of variables account for from 58% and 87% of the total variation in returns, with capital market factors contributing between 32% and 75% to the explanatory power.

The allocation to property in the multi‐asset portfolio: The evidence and theory reconsidered

Summary Studies which use modern portfolio theory (MPT) to calculate the optimal allocation to property in a multi‐asset portfolio are fundamentally flawed. These suggest optimal theoretical allocations for property which are much higher than actual allocations to property. Criticism can be made of: the exclusion of other eligible assets from the analysis; the use of a mean‐variance optimization technique on estimated data; the inadequacies of the historical data which understates risk and correlation and may overstate return; the changing characteristics of property as an investment; the indivisibility of property and the consequent difficulties in achieving a diversified property portfolio; the complexity of risk as a concept compared to the simple and simplistic definition used in MPT; and the omission of explicit consideration of differential liquidity. An alternative which offers a more practicable framework for decision‐making is a combination of econometric techniques to forecast income under diffe...

Homogeneous Commercial Property Market Groupings and Portfolio Construction in the United Kingdom

Property portfolios are traditionally constructed by diversifying across geographical areas, property types, or a combination of both. In the United Kingdom it is normal practice to use regions rather than towns or local market areas as the geographical divisions. The authors use cluster analysis to construct homogeneous groups from 157 UK local markets, by means of commercial property returns. The results show strong property-type dimensions and only very broad geographical dimensions in the clusters. These clusters are found, in general, to have temporal stability with changes in cluster membership being explained by the changing economic geography of the United Kingdom. The cluster-derived groupings are used to derive efficient investment frontiers and are compared with frontiers based on conventional heuristic groupings. It is shown that strategies based on parsimonious cluster-based groupings, appropriate for smaller investors, generate results that are comparable with those of conventional groupings and capture the main drivers of property performance.

The Spatial Dimensions of the Investment Performance of UK Commercial Property

In this paper, cluster analytical techniques are used to examine dimensions of diversification in UK commercial property markets. A variety of techniques are used on a dataset which contains property returns for 156 property markets (67 retail locations, 64 office locations and 25 industrial locations). The results strongly suggest that property type is the most important dimension in determining different market behaviour. There is also evidence of a geographical factor, but one which does not conform to the conventional 11-region administrative classification but rather suggests a London factor.

The short term inflation hedging characteristics of UK real estate

This study investigates the short-term inflation-hedging characteristics of U.K. real estate compared to other U.K. investments. It considers not only total returns but also changes in income and changes in capital values. The analyses are undertaken using annual and quarterly data. Stocks, bonds, appraisal-based real estate (including the three property types, separately), and real estate stocks are considered. Real estate series, constructed from the original appraisal series to take account of autocorrelation, also are used. The methodology is based on that devised by Fama and Schwert (1977) and tests are undertaken for stationarity and structural breaks. Hypotheses are established about the coefficients on expected and unexpected inflation in the model, and these are tested. It is concluded that real estate has poorer short-term hedging characteristics for total return, change in capital value, and change in income than stocks but better characteristics than bonds. However, there is evidence to suggest that the relationships change under different economic environments.