Research on Impact of Interest Movements on Australian Property Investments wins best paper award at International Conference

In the recent Asian Real Estate Society Conference (AsRES) in Bengaluru, PCPM property researchers, Dr Wejen Reddy and Dr Woon-Weng Wong were presented with the best paper award in the real estate finance category. The research, entitled ‘Australian Interest Rate Movements and A-REITs Performance: A Sectoral Analysis’ was funded by the School of PCPM Research Project Seed Funding grant. The research was supervised by Professor David Higgins, with Mr Mario Saccoccio, a Melbourne based property professional, having ongoing industry involvement with the research.

The AsRES conference draws property academics, practitioners, policy makers across the globe to share current research findings on topics related to real estate markets. The conference papers are peer reviewed. Dr Reddy’s and Dr Wong’s research paper investigated trends in Australian interest rate cycles and its impact on Australian real estate investment trusts (A-REITs) performance using the capital asset pricing model. The findings indicate that rising short-term interest rates contribute to positive returns while rising long-term interest rates result in lower returns.

Author(s): Wejen Reddy and Woon-Weng Wong