Globalization, integration and commercial property. Evidence from the UK

This paper analyses trends in direct international property investment by British investing institutions in the 1980s and 1990s. Although it is well established that there is home country bias in all investment sectors, evidence is presented which suggests that it is more pronounced in the direct property sector. The main focus is on barriers to international property investment and, therefore, potential sources of segmentation in the property sector. The research addresses a number of issues relating to levels of international property investment, the linkages between the nature of the core business and investment strategies and the relative importance of high diversification costs. This is carried out by an analysis of the most recent data on British institutional investment trends and by a survey questionnaire of British property professionals involved in asset allocation decisions for the investing institutions. The results indicate that: information costs are the most important barrier to international direct property investment, the high cost of executing a global diversification strategy inhibits international property investment, and institutions who have clients and see business opportunities in international centres are more likely to be interested in international property investment opportunities. The data on asset allocation trends support the view that the property market is significantly less integrated than the other securities markets.