Private-equity commercial real estate, timberland, and farmland: market integration and information transition dynamics

Publication: Canadian Journal of Forest Research
13 May 2020

Abstract

Using data from the National Council of Real Estate Investment Fiduciaries (NCREIF), we examine market integration of commercial real estate and timberland–farmland assets via the Fama–MacBeth two-step approach under the intertemporal capital asset pricing framework. In addition, we study the information transition dynamics between those markets via the vector error correction model (VECM). We find evidence of market segregation and one-way information flow from the timberland–farmland market to the commercial real estate market. We conclude that commercial real estate and timberland–farmland assets are driven by different market fundamentals and that lagged timberland–farmland returns can help predict current commercial real estate returns. The only exception is during market downturns when commercial real estate and timberland–farmland markets are somewhat integrated and driven by some factors that are not specified in this study.

Résumé

À l’aide des données du Conseil national des fiduciaires en investissement immobilier (NCREIF), nous examinons l’intégration du marché de l’immobilier commercial et des actifs forestiers et agricoles grâce à l’approche en deux étapes de Fama–MacBeth dans le cadre de l’évaluation intemporelle des actifs. De plus, nous étudions la dynamique de transition de l’information entre ces marchés via le modèle de correction d’erreur vectorielle (MCEV). Nous avons trouvé des preuves d’une ségrégation du marché et un flux d’information unidirectionnel de la part du marché des terres forestières et agricoles vers le marché de l’immobilier commercial. Nous concluons que l’immobilier commercial et les actifs forestiers et agricoles sont déterminés par différents principes fondamentaux du marché et les rendements différés des terres forestières et agricoles peuvent aider à prédire les rendements actuels de l’immobilier commercial. La seule exception survient pendant les replis du marché lorsque les marchés de l’immobilier commercial et des terres forestières et agricoles sont partiellement intégrés et déterminés par des facteurs qui ne sont pas pris en compte dans cette étude. [Colour online.]

Get full access to this article

View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.

References

Anson M. 2002. Managed pricing and the rule of conservatism in private equity portfolios. J. Private Equity, 5(2): 18–30.
Asness C., Krail R., and Liew J. 2001. Do hedge funds hedge? J. Port. Manag. 28(1): 6–19.
Bigelow, D., Borchers, A., and Hubbs, T. 2016. U.S. farmland ownership, tenure, and transfer. Economic Information Bulletin Number 161, USDA Economic Research Service.
Brennan M.J., Wang A.W., and Xia Y.H. 2004. Estimation and test of a simple model of intertemporal capital asset pricing. J. Financ. 59(4): 1743–1775.
Burns, C., Key, N., Tulman, S., Borchers, A., and Weber, J. 2018. Farmland values, land ownership, and returns to farmland, 2000–2016. Economic Research Report Number 245, USDA Economic Research Service.
Campbell J.Y. 1996. Understanding risk and return. J. Polit. Econ. 104(2): 298–345.
Chaudhry M.K., Neil Myer F.C., and Webb J.R. 1999. Stationarity and cointegration in systems with real estate and financial assets. J. Real Estate Finance Econ. 18(3): 339–349.
Cheng P. and Liang Y. 2000. Optimal diversification: Is it really worthwhile? J. Real Estate Port. Manag. 6(1): 7–16.
Cheng P., Lin Z., and Liu Y. 2008. A model of time-on-market and real estate price under sequential search with recall. Real Estate Econ. 36(4): 813–843.
Chiang K.C.H. and Lee M.-L. 2007. Spanning tests on public and private real estate. J. Real Estate Port. Manag. 13(1): 7–15.
Cho H., Kawaguchi Y., and Shilling J.D. 2003. Unsmoothing commercial property returns: A revision to Fisher–Geltner–Webb’s unsmoothing methodology. J. Real Estate Financ. Econ. 27(3): 393–405.
Clayton J.I.M., Giliberto S.M., Gordon J., Hudson-Wilson S., Fabozzi F.J., and Liang Y. 2009. Real estate’s evolution as an asset class. J. Port. Manag. 35(5): 10–22.
Corgel J.B. and deRoos J.A. 1999. Recovery of real estate returns for portfolio allocation. J. Real Estate Financ. Econ. 18(3): 279–296.
Craft T. 2001. The role of private and public real estate in pension plan portfolio allocation choices. J. Real Estate Port. Manag. 7(1): 17–23.
David L. 2005. A random walk down Main Street: can experts predict returns on commercial real estate? J. Real Estate Res. 27(2): 137–154.
Dorfman J.H. and Park M.D. 2011. Estimating the risk–return tradeoff in agribusiness stocks: linkages with the broader stock market. Am. J. Agric. Econ. 93(2): 426–433.
Engle R.F. and Granger C.W.J. 1987. Co-integration and error correction: Representation, estimation, and testing. Econometrica, 55(2): 251–276.
Eppli M.J. and Shilling J.D. 1995. Speed of adjustment in commercial real estate markets. South. Econ. J. 61(4): 1127–1145.
Fama E.F. and French K.R. 1989. Business conditions and expected returns on stocks and bonds. J. Financ. Econ. 25(1): 23–49.
Fama E.F. and MacBeth J.D. 1973. Risk, return, and equilibrium: Empirical tests. J. Polit. Econ. 81(3): 607–636.
Fisher J.D. and Young M.S. 2000. Institutional property tenure: Evidence from the NCREIF database. J. Real Estate Portf. Manag. 6(4): 327–338.
Fisher J., Geltner D., and Pollakowski H. 2007. A quarterly transactions-based index of institutional real estate investment performance and movements in supply and demand. J. Real Estate Financ. Econ. 34(1): 5–33.
Geltner D. 1989. Bias in appraisal-based returns. J. Am. Real Estate Urban Econ. Assoc. 17(3): 338–352.
Geltner D. 1991. A further examination of appraisal data and the potential bias in real-estate return indexes: Comment and clarification. J. Am. Real Estate Urban Econ. Assoc. 19(1): 102–116.
Geltner D., MacGregor B.D., and Schwann G.M. 2003. Appraisal smoothing and price discovery in real estate markets. Urban Stud. 40(5–6): 1047–1064.
Glascock J.L., Lu C., and So R.W. 2000. Further evidence on the integration of REIT, bond, and stock returns. J. Real Estate Finance Econ. 20(2): 177–194.
Graff R.A. and Young M.S. 1996. Real estate return correlations: Real-world limitations on relationships inferred from NCREIF data. J. Real Estate Finance Econ. 13(2): 121–142.
Hardie I., Parks P., Gottleib P., and Wear D. 2000. Responsiveness of rural and urban land uses to land rent determinants in the US. South. Land Econ. 76(4): 659–673.
Hardie I.W., Narayan T.A., and Gardner B.L. 2001. The joint influence of agricultural and nonfarm factors on real estate values: An application to the Mid-Atlantic region. Am. J. Agric. Econ. 83(1): 120–132.
Hendershott P.H. and MacGregor B.D. 2005. Investor rationality: An analysis of NCREIF commercial property data. J. Real Estate Res. 27(4): 445–476.
Hood, H., Harris, T., Siry, J., Baldwin, S., and Smith, J. 2015. 2015 U.S. Timberland Markets: Transactions, Values & Market Research 2000 to mid-2015. Timber Mart-South, Athens, Georgia.
Johansen S. 1991. Estimation and hypothesis testing of cointegration vectors in Gaussian vector autoregressive models. Econometrica, 59(6): 1551–1580.
Kuethe T.H., Walsh N., and Ifft J. 2013. Farmland versus alternative investments before and after the 2008 financial crisis. Journal of ASFMRA. pp. 120–131.
Latruffe L. and Le Mouël C. 2009. Capitalization of government support in agricultural land prices: What do we know? J. Econ. Surv. 23(4): 659–691.
Lecomte P. and McIntosh W. 2006. Designing property futures contracts and options based on NCREIF property indices. J. Real Estate Port. Manag. 12(9): 119–154.
Li J., Mooradian R.M., and Yang S.X. 2009. The information content of the NCREIF index. J. Real Estate Res. 31(1): 93–116.
Li Y., Mei B., and Linhares-Juvenal T. 2019. The economic contribution of the world’s forest sector. For. Policy Econ. 100: 236–253.
Liang Y., Myer F.C.N., and Webb J.R. 1996. The bootstrap efficient frontier for mixed-asset portfolios. Real Estate Econ. 24(2): 247–256.
Ling D.C. and Naranjo A. 2015. Returns and information transmission dynamics in public and private real estate markets. Real Estate Econ. 43(1): 163–208.
Mei B. 2016. Transaction-based timberland investment returns. Land Econ. 92(1): 187–201.
Mei B. 2017. Investment returns of US commercial timberland: Insights into index construction methods and results. Can. J. For. Res. 47(2): 226–233.
Mei B., Clutter M.L., and Harris T.G. 2013. Timberland return drivers and timberland returns and risks: A simulation approach. South. J. Appl. For. 37(1): 18–25.
Mueller A.G. and Mueller G.R. 2003. Public and private real estate in a mixed-asset portfolio. J. Real Estate Port. Manag. 9(3): 193–203.
Mueller G. 1993. Refining economic diversification strategies for real estate portfolios. J. Real Estate Res. 8(1): 55–68.
Munneke H.J. and Slade B.A. 2000. An empirical study of sample-selection bias in indices of commercial real estate. J. Real Estate Finance Econ. 21(1): 45–64.
Newell G. and MacFarlane J. 1995. Improved risk estimation using appraisal smoothed real estate returns. J. Real Estate Port. Manag. 1(1): 51–57.
Nickerson, C., Morehart, M., Kuethe, T., Beckman, J., Ifft, J., and Williams, R. 2012. Trends in U.S. farmland values and ownership. Economic Information Bulletin Number 92, USDA Economic Research Service.
Pagliari J.L., Lieblich F., Schaner M., and Webb J.R. 2001. Twenty years of the NCREIF Property Index. Real Estate Econ. 29(1): 1–27.
Parker J.A. and Julliard C. 2005. Consumption risk and the cross section of expected returns. J. Polit. Econ. 113(1): 185–222.
Petkova R. 2006. Do the Fama–French factors proxy for innovations in predictive variables? J. Financ. 61(2): 581–612.
Plazzi A., Torous W., and Valkanov R. 2008. The cross-sectional dispersion of commercial real estate returns and rent growth: Time variation and economic fluctuations. Real Estate Econ. 36(3): 403–439.
Scholtens B. and Spierdijk L. 2010. Does money grow on trees? The diversification properties of U.S. timberland investments. Land Econ. 86(3): 514–529.
Shilling J.D. 1993. Measurement error in FRC/NCREIF returns on real estate. South. Econ. J. 60(1): 210–219.
Shilton L. 2000. Random walks and the cointegration of the ACLI and NCREIF. Real Estate Econ. 28(3): 435–465.
Shilton L. and Stanley C. 1995. Spatial filtering: Concentration or dispersion of NCREIF institutional investment. J. Real Estate Res. 10(5): 569–582.
Smith A., Hess R., and Liang Y. 2005. Clustering the U.S. real estate markets. J. Real Estate Port. Manag. 11(2): 197–209.
statista. 2018. The Statistics Portal. Available from https://www.statista.com/.
Waggle D. and Johnson D.T. 2009. An analysis of the impact of timberland, farmland and commercial real estate in the asset allocation decisions of institutional investors. Rev. Financ. Econ. 18(2): 90–96.
Yao W. and Mei B. 2015. Assessing forestry-related assets with the intertemporal capital asset pricing model. For. Policy Econ. 50: 192–199.
Young M.S. 2005. Making sense of the NCREIF property index: A new formulation revisited. J. Real Estate Port. Manag. 11(3): 211–223.
Ziering B. and McIntosh W. 1999. Property size and risk: Why bigger is not always better. J. Real Estate Port. Manag. 5(2): 105–112.

Information & Authors

Information

Published In

cover image Canadian Journal of Forest Research
Canadian Journal of Forest Research
Volume 50Number 11November 2020
Pages: 1101 - 1112

History

Received: 17 July 2019
Accepted: 8 May 2020
Accepted manuscript online: 13 May 2020
Version of record online: 13 May 2020

Permissions

Request permissions for this article.

Key Words

  1. alternative assets
  2. ICAPM
  3. GARCH
  4. risk premium
  5. time series

Mots-clés

  1. actifs alternatifs
  2. MÉDAC intemporel (modèle intemporel d’évaluation des actifs)
  3. ARCH généralisé (modèle autorégressif conditionnellement hétéroscédastique généralisé)
  4. prime de risque
  5. séries chronologiques

Authors

Affiliations

Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA.
Wenbo Wu
College of Business, University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX 78249, USA.
Wenjing Yao
Department of Finance and Decision Sciences, School of Business, Trinity University, San Antonio, TX 78212, USA.

Notes

*
Bin Mei currently serves as an Associate Editor; peer review and editorial decisions regarding this manuscript were handled by Martin Luckert.
Copyright remains with the author(s) or their institution(s). Permission for reuse (free in most cases) can be obtained from copyright.com.

Metrics & Citations

Metrics

Other Metrics

Citations

Cite As

Export Citations

If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.

Cited by

1. Relationship of public farmland and timberland REITs with their private equity counterparts and selected asset classes
2. The Time-Varying Link of Public Timber REITs with Private Timberland, Real Estate, and Financial Assets

View Options

Get Access

Login options

Check if you access through your login credentials or your institution to get full access on this article.

Subscribe

Click on the button below to subscribe to Canadian Journal of Forest Research

Purchase options

Purchase this article to get full access to it.

Restore your content access

Enter your email address to restore your content access:

Note: This functionality works only for purchases done as a guest. If you already have an account, log in to access the content to which you are entitled.

View options

PDF

View PDF

Full Text

View Full Text

Media

Media

Other

Tables

Share Options

Share

Share the article link

Share on social media