An investigation of real estate investment decision-making practices

Abstract

This survey investigation reports on the investment decision-making processes used by equity investors in real estate. The survey covers the entire investment decision-making process, from setting strategy to auditing operating performance. Respondents identify the most important stages of the process as searching for investment opportunities, forecasting expected returns, and evaluating forecasted returns. Most believe that individual project factors are more important than strategic and portfolio factors, and that returns should be measured on a before-tax cash flow basis and evaluated using discounted cash flow measures. Respondents are more concerned with project than portfolio risk and are unlikely to make a quantitative risk assessment or risk adjustment. When compared with the results of earlier studies, this investigation suggests that real estate investment decision-making practices have not evolved much over the past decade.