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Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Have the private equity real estate funds out-performed REITs on a risk adjusted basis over time?

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

Investors often face tough decisions when it comes to allocating their limited investment capital. Traditionally, private equity real estate funds (“PERE funds”) have been a popular choice, but since the 1990s, real estate investment trusts (“REITs”) have also become a widely available option. Given the range of options available, investors may be wondering which option will provide the best returns on their investment. In this paper, we provide a comparison of the return performance between REITs and PERE Funds’ three main strategies, including Core, Value-Added, and Opportunistic, from 2000 to 2020. The study analyzes a series of data from Preqin, NCREIF, NAREIT and SBBI. Our study features the use of the Treynor ratio to measure investment performance on a risk-adjusted basis, to provide a rigorous quantitative approach to comparing the total returns of both PERE funds and REITs. Overall, we find that listed REITs slightly outperformed PERE Funds in the past 21 years. In the end, the study suggests an implied recommendation on investment strategies. reflecting our findings.

Degree

thesis:*
Name thesis:degree_name
Master
Department dc:contributor.department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Center for Real Estate. Program in Real Estate Development.
Grantor dc:publisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Year dc:date.issued
2023

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Lai, Qiaojun
Advisors dc:contributor.advisor
  • Geltner, David M.
  • Thompson, Anne Kinsella

Rights

dc:rights
Statement dc:rights
  • In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted
  • Copyright retained by author(s)

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Handle dc:identifier.uri
https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/150095
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/150095

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
MIT
Base URL
dspace.mit.edu/oai/request
Last updated
2026-07-22
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
related terms
citation

Lai, Qiaojun. Have the private equity real estate funds out-performed REITs on a risk adjusted basis over time?. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2023. https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/150095