Loss Aversion and Market Liquidity in the Real Estate Market

The most commonly observed risk averse behavior in the commercial real estate market is loss aversion on the part of investors; i.e., investors are more sensitive to prospective losses than to prospective gains. This observation leads to the natural question : Does the market rationally anticipate investors' loss aversion? If not, then does loss aversion become stronger in a relatively illiquid market? The answer to these questions provides strategically important implications to institutional investors. We propose to explore the impact of loss aversion on the commercial real estate market by testing two competing hypotheses : (1) the rational market expectation hypothesis and (2) the liquidity spiral hypothesis. The rational market expectation hypothesis holds that the market rationally anticipates investors' behavioral loss aversion. As a result, the interaction between lagged market liquidity and loss aversion does not have an impact on the probability of property sales. On the other hand, the liquidity spiral hypothesis holds that the interaction between market liquidity and loss aversion has an impact on the probability of property sales due to the self-fulfilling feedback effect between loss aversion and market liquidity. In the context of REITs' property transactions, we find partial evidence for the liquidity spiral hypothesis : private market liquidity and stock market liquidity each has an additional impact on the sale probability of property.