Inflation Risk Analysis of European Real Estate Securities

Abstract

Real estate is an important asset, but as direct investment linked with several difficulties. Shares of public open end funds or of real estate stock corporations represent a possible way for an investor to avoid these problems. The focus of this paper is the inflation risks of European real estate securities. An overview for institutional frameworks regarding these companies is given. The returns from securitised real estate in France, Germany, Switzerland and the United Kingdom are examined for the period 1980:1-1998:12. Besides the classical Fama/Schwert-approach, shortfall risk measurements have been used. In this context, transaction costs in particular have been taken into account.