Leibniz Network "Real Estate Markets and Capital Markets"
In recent years,
the European real estate markets have been affected by a growing capital market
orientation. This is evident, on the one hand, from the financing behaviour of
property companies which increasingly focuses on the acquisition of equity
capital and securitised loans on the organised capital market. This is partly
due to a rise in the average financing volumes and the corresponding need for
risk diversification. In addition, the increasing proliferation of real
estate-based capital market instruments and rising experience of financial
market intermediaries in the field of real estate finance have improved the
profitability of this mode of financing. On the other hand, institutional and
private investors seize new opportunities in the area of real estate
investment. In the field of institutional investors, short-term and medium-term
orientated investors (Opportunity Funds, Private Equity Funds) have been
playing a far more important role in real estate markets in the recent past
than in earlier times. Furthermore, one can observe a reorientation of
long-term investors (e.g. insurance companies) from direct real estate
investment to indirect investments in real estate securities. While most
private investors still prefer direct real estate investments or indirect
investment in investment funds, they also have a growing universe of stock
market-based real estate products at their disposal. However, the current
financial and real estate market crisis - which has its roots in the subprime
mortgage market – has also proven the enormous risks of capital market-based
real estate investments. Against this background the Centre for European
Economic Research (Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung (ZEW)) has
initiated an international research network focusing on the subject area of
“Real Estate Markets and Capital Markets”, to be supported in the framework of
the “Pact for Research and Innovation” programme by the Science Association
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (short: Leibniz Association). The network’s main goal
is to bring experts from related fields of research (inter alia: real estate
economics, financial markets, public finance, demographics, regional science)
together to address the following key research questions:
– What are the effects of the increasing influence of capital market-oriented
investors/financial investors on the development of European residential
property markets and commercial real estate markets?
– Will real estate markets become more sensitive to capital market fluctuations
(and vice versa)? Is the volatility of the real estate markets and, in
particular, the probability of speculative bubbles likely to increase?
–What are the risk-return characteristics of new real estate-based capital
market instruments and what does that imply for the investment strategies of
short-, medium-, and long term investors?
Duration: 01.01.2009 - 31.12.2011
- Andrew Filardo, PH.D., Bank for International Settlements (BIS), Basel, CH
- Dr. Björn Martin Kurzrock, Junior Prof. , Kaiserslautern, DE
- Dr. Christina West, Mannheim, DE
- Leibniz Institut für Regionalentwicklung und Strukturplanung (IRS), Erkner, DE
- Leibniz-Institut für ökologische Raumentwicklung (IÖR) (IÖR), Dresden, DE
- Mannheim Research Institute for the Economics of Aging (MEA), Mannheim, DE
- Prof. Dr. Erasmo Giambona, University of Amsterdam Business School, Amsterdam, NL
- Prof. Dr. Matthias Casper (Institut für Arbeits-, Sozial- und Wirtschaftsrecht), Münster, DE
- Prof. Dr. Shaun Bond, Department of Finance - Real Estate, University of Cincinnati , Cincinati, US
- Prof. Dr. Steffen Sebastian, Universität Regensburg, Chair of Real Estate Finance, Regensburg, DE
- Prof. Ong Seow Eng, Ph.D., Department of Real Estate, National University of Singapur, Singapur, CN
30.10 - 31.10.2009
1st ReCapNet Conference: Real Estate Markets and Capital Markets
