Real Estate Investment Trusts, or REITs was introduced to ease the unfavorable liquidity of Korean companies from financial crisis in 1998. REITs now deals with 26 items and 7 items among them have expired or have been paid off and it amount to 5.5 tr...
Real Estate Investment Trusts, or REITs was introduced to ease the unfavorable liquidity of Korean companies from financial crisis in 1998. REITs now deals with 26 items and 7 items among them have expired or have been paid off and it amount to 5.5 trillion won. REITs in Korea is a small scale compared to foreign countries. When it comes to comparison with Japan and Australia that has introduced REITs at almost same time, REITs in Korea is inferior to them. This is because Korean investors are not favor of indirect real estate investment and the major investment target of REITs is limited to commercial buildings and studio apartments, so REITs market has not been stimulated well.
Now, as uncertainties due to the direct real estate invest has risen and the real estate market over the world has been suddenly changed, I think, REITs can attract attention in the future.
Therefore, it needs to examine how REITs stock prices are decided and which elements affect them.
According to the purpose of this study, external variables has been distinguished based on time-series analysis data of REITs stock from June 15th in 2006 to August 1st in 2008, totally 526 days and differences of elements according to the types of REITs have been analyzed.
Stocks of REITs for the analysis are five ; 2 stocks belong to the type of entrust management, called EM-REITs and 3 stocks are included in the type of corporate restructuring, that is CR-REITs. Every 5 item consists of a portfolio based on an average in market value and the type of entrust management and corporate restructuring consists of each portfolio. Thus, it is categorized into 3 types portfolio, whole item portfolio(REITS), entrust management portfolio (EMREITS) and CR-REITs portfolio (CRREITS).
The stock prices of REITs can be evaluated by dividend discount model that is used for the evaluation of the general stock's present value. According to the REITs stock price model, it is decided on the basis of rent, sale differences and a discount rate. As rent and sale differences are decided by the price of real estate, the Korea Composite Stock Price Index(KOSPI), the Construction Sector Index(CONSI) and Exchange Rate(ER) are selected as proxy variables. As a proxy variable of discount rate is selected the three-year corporate bond earning rate(RB3).
The results on VAR model based on unit root probation, Granger Causality test and the evaluation of proper degree are as follows. The elements that affect the portfolio of whole REITs item(REITS) have been analyzed by past information of themselves and Exchange Rate(ER). Entrust management REITs(EMREITS) and CR REITs(CRREITS) has been meaningfully influenced only by past information of themselves. Although it was not statistically meaningful different, the influence of KOSPI and RB3 is different in case of EMREITS and CRREITS.
Through this study, the effect of exchange rate on REITs prices has been confirmed ; however, further study is needed to examine how ER and real estate price affect each other and how differently KOSPI and RB3 affect each type of EMREITS and CRREITS.
There are critical points ; that is, the study duration is short, analyzed items are only a few, financial information of REITs company and real estate market index that is directly related to REITs are not included in analysis.
If the increase in REITs stock and time-series data is done, more qualitative study would be performed.