Real Estate Research

Real Estate Research

Real Estate Research

Real estate professionals worldwide rely on various research resources for accurate, timely, and comprehensive information whether they are employed as developers, investment bankers, fund managers, brokers, asset managers, investors or any of the wide range of professionals in the industry.

Trade organizations and events

Real estate is a famously networking-intensive industry and word of mouth if the most common source of information distribution. To this end, industry trade organizations across the world, provide excellent networking and educational opportunities. Some of the most popular include Urban Land Institute (ULI), Pension Real Estate Association (PREA), the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trust (Nareit), and the National Council of Real Estate Investment Fiduciaries (NCREIF) Exhibit 1 provides a list of major high profile, professional organizations in real estate, including those focussed on particular products, and geographies both domestic and international.

Real estate trade organizations provide significant training and informational benefits. These organizations sponsor their own highly regarded research, material reports and books, such as ULI’s Emerging Trends in Real Estate, and the PREA quarterly magazine. While the quantity of materials and events can be overwhelming, frequent attendance to events offered by particular organization can result in stronger ongoing contact a better sense of who the industry thought leaders are, and what publications are most relied upon many organizations, foster networking groups for investors and professionals.

Trend Common Sources

Investors typically gravitate toward a selection of functions within real estate, namely development, acquisitions, leasing and asset management. Regardless of the function, it is always important to maintain a strong command of local and macro trends. Real estate research can be categorized under several primary areas listed below, with a few major sources suggested for each:

  • Demand drivers (economic indicators, demographic trends):  Moody’s economy.com, census.gov, CBRE Econometric Advisors

  • Cap rates (what different products are “trading” for):  Real Capital Analytics, REIT Investor Reports, Thomson One Banker
  • Rent, vacancy and adsorption rates:  Brokerage firm research reports, CoStar, and news websties such as www.globest.com and www.factiva.com
  • Expense escalation (energy costs, taxes, services costs, etc.):  Brokerage firm research reports, CoStar
  • Construction and building materials cost trends:  Dodge Data and Analytics, CMD Group
  • Commercial comparable reports:  CoStar, Real Capital Analytics, listing websites
  • Equity and debt markets (interest rates, availability of capital, deal flow):  Bloomberg.com, Deal Pipeline, Real Capital Analytics, Thomson One Banker

BK’s Recommended Reading

Poorvu, William J. The Real Estate Game: The Intelligent Guide to Decision-Making and Investment. New York, NY: The Free Press, 1999.

Peiser, Richard B. Professional Real Estate Development—The ULI Guide to the Business. Washington, & DC: The Urban Land Institute, 2003.

David M. Geltner, Norman G. Miller, Jim Clayton, and Piet Eichholtz. Commercial Real Estate Analysis & Investments. Mason, OH: Thomson, 2007

Evans, Denise L., and Evans, O. William. The Complete Real Estate Encyclopedia: From AAA Tenant to Zoning Variance and Everything in between. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2007.

Long, Charles. Finance for Real Estate Development. Washington, D.C.: Urban Land Institute, 2011.

Staiger, Roger. Foundations of Real Estate Financial Modelling. 2nd ed. Milton: Routledge, 2018.

 

Bernard Koszyk
Bernard Koszyk