Globalization
has deepened complexity and allowed seamless investment across the world. This
has enabled investors to diversify into ever more asset classes. Our focus here
is on the residential property asset sub-class. Typical avenues of investment
into property are:
·
Direct
investment into commercial property;
·
Direct
investment into residential property;
·
Investment
in property ETF or listed property company via purchasing shares;
·
Investment
in a real estate investment trust.
Property as
an entire asset class has historically delivered risks and rewards halfway
between equities and bonds. Its benefits include its ability to keep pace with
inflation and its usefulness in a portfolio of investments as global property
returns have demonstrated a moderately low correlation to North-American and
European equities. Its drawbacks are that the asset class is susceptible to
bubbles and property can be illiquid.
It is the
residential property asset sub-class which we are focused on as it has
historically been the most lucrative of the sub-classes. It is not only the
largest property asset sub-class, but also the largest out of all investment
asset classes, with residential property just in the UK worth over GBP4
trillion. Its benefits include:
·
On a
risk-adjusted basis, residential property has outperformed all other assets
over the long-term, with a 10-year average weighted return of 10.6%;
·
More
liquid than commercial property;
·
Good
to be used in diversification strategy as it has low correlation with
commercial property (0.70), bonds (0.04) and equities (0.09), as measured by
the Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient over the past 40 years;
·
Residential
property has the lowest volatility of all asset classes over the long-term;
·
It can
be used as a hedge against inflation, partly due to the ability of landlords to
adjust rent upwards and partly due to the uptrend of property valuations over
time;
·
Depending
on the area and type of property, there are chronic supply/demand imbalances;
·
Residential
property has intrinsic value through being a tangible investment;
·
Favourable
tax treatment of residential property and debt finance has also made it
attractive.
However there
are some drawbacks to investment in the residential property sub-class:
·
Low
liquidity if compared with bond or equities markets trading;
·
High
transaction costs and cumbersome settlement and clearing process compared to
stocks or bonds as residential property transactions generally require
exchanges of physical documents prepared by lawyers;
·
Lack
of pricing transparency as most price information comes from prior transactions
that may be weeks or months old by the time they are published;
·
Asymmetric
price movements as historically residential property prices tend to move up
more readily than down (pricing stickiness). This is due to the tendency for
sellers who don’t receive offers in their desired price range to resist
selling;
·
Significant
holding costs of residential property including maintenance expenses and
property taxes;
·
Rents
are outstripping average incomes, which is sustainable short-term but will be a
constraint in the long-run.
More recently
within the residential property sub-class, I believe we can discern more
distinctions between certain types. This is supported by the difference in
price increases between the various market segments – for example prime London
property prices have increased 53% since Q1 2009 and 10% just since Q1 2012,
whereas comfortable property prices have increased 15% since Q1 2009 and 7%
just since Q1 2012. There are several factors propelling this divergence of
residential property:
·
The
market is now global;
·
Investors
hunting for yield have turned to residential property as an inflation-matching
income;
·
The
wealthy have increased their share of the world’s wealth whilst the
middle-class (associated with comfortable and affordable property) have
suffered a decrease in their share over the past five years;
·
The
advent of larger knowledge economies have continued to consolidate and create
more global financial and business hubs.
This
divergence can be extrapolated onto the below matrix:
Residential Property Demand Elasticity Matrix
|
Super-Prime
|
Prime
|
Comfortable
|
Affordable
|
Low-Cost
|
Global City
|
Perfectly
Inelastic demand
|
Perfectly
Inelastic demand
|
Inelastic
demand
|
Inelastic
demand
|
Elastic
demand
|
Transnational City
|
Perfectly
Inelastic demand
|
Inelastic
demand
|
Inelastic
demand
|
Elastic
demand
|
Elastic demand
|
Developing Global City
|
Inelastic
demand
|
Inelastic
demand
|
Elastic
demand
|
Elastic
demand
|
Elastic
demand
|
Developing Transnational City
|
Inelastic
demand
|
Elastic
demand
|
Elastic
demand
|
Elastic
demand
|
Elastic
demand
|
National City
|
Elastic
demand
|
Elastic demand
|
Elastic
demand
|
Elastic
demand
|
Elastic
demand
|
Looking
vertically, city allocation is based on the total capital flows through a city,
as the assumption used is that the more international the city the larger
amounts of capital that will pass through. However there are many exceptions,
such as the Channel Islands, Cayman Islands, Luxembourg, and many more which
would feature as global cities if solely based on total capital flows.
Therefore, city allocation is a function of total capital flows + population
size. The rise of the knowledge economy renders population size for cities an
important factor as a greater population can (hopefully) provide a greater
number of highly skilled knowledge workers. So for instance:
·
Global
City – London, Hong Kong, New York, Tokyo, Zurich, Amsterdam
·
Transnational
City – Beijing, Frankfurt, Mexico City, Chicago, Boston
·
Developing
Global City – Paris, Shanghai, Moscow, Mumbai, Sao Paolo, Dubai
·
Developing
Transnational City – Lagos, Istanbul, Buenos Aires, Jakarta
·
National
City – Chongqing, Calcutta, Bogota, Dhaka
Meanwhile
looking horizontally, Super-Prime property is property valued at or over US$10
million, Prime property is property valued at US$2 million to US$10 million, Comfortable
property is property valued between US$1 million to US$2 million, Affordable
property is property valued between US$250,000 to US$1 million, and Low-cost
property is property valued up to US$250,000. Low-cost property is that often
associated, globally, with the lower-middle class and working classes.
Conversely, the middle-classes are associated with affordable and comfortable
property, whilst the upper middle-class and global 1% would be associated with
prime and super-prime property.
There has
been a trend over the past 50 years as a result of a growing world population
against a finite supply of land. Super-prime property has increased by 2,690%
since 1975 and prime property has increased by 2,580% in the same period. This
trend and rising prices will continue, as demonstrated by the demand elasticity
matrix.
More
specifically, there are several desirable locations to invest in residential
property. Using a net of gilt yields measure which compares government bond
interest rates to rental growth to demonstrate a comparison of where investors
may put their money, suggests there is potential for 30% growth in average New
York residential capital values and 40% in Tokyo property by 2016. Moreover, it
is suggested that the average price of prime London property will increase to GBP
6million by 2045, up from GBP 1.5 million currently. Rising prices will be most
keenly exhibited in the global cities with their favourable legal protection,
quality of life, attractive tax regimes, lifestyle, and world-class schools.
Research also forecasts London’s average per capita income to grow by more than
any other world city between now and 2025, from US$66,000 currently to
US$95,000 by 2025, mainly due to booming financial services and increased
tourism. By 2025, London will have the fourth-largest city economy in the world
(US$821 billion), despite the fact that its population size will remain
stagnant. Tokyo will have the largest economy of any urban city (US$1.98
billion), followed by New York and Los Angeles. The other developed city to
demonstrate meaningful growth during this period would be Hong Kong, which
would also benefit from its world-class financial services industry. These
factors will continue to facilitate rising prices for residential property in
these global cities.
Ultimately,
residential property is a composite good providing many different functions to
a buyer – it is an investment asset, a utility as people live in these
properties, and as a Veblen good where lifestyle and luxury play a role in the
decision. Perhaps the residential property demand elasticity matrix can help
illuminate market movements and facilitate investment decision-making in this
asset class.