The Impact of size and value effects on listed property trust performance

The purpose of this dissertation is to determine whether size and book value to market value (BV/MV) effects dominate the property effects in the return generating process for Listed Property Trusts (LPTs) in Australia.The study endeavours to answer a critical question regarding listed property investment vehicles. That is, are they stocks or property? The approach, however, differs from previous studies in that it avoids utilising direct property data because of the inherent valuation-smoothing problems.Instead, it develops unique specialised indices for LPTs by size and BV/MV ratios. The analyses are conducted in four different ways. Amongst other findings, it is suggested that the two well known stock market effects, namely size and BV/MV effects, are significant in LPT returns. As such, by way of inference, it is suggested that property effects in LPT returns are subsumed under the effects of these two factors. The findings support the hybrid-asset hypothesis for LPTs; that is, LPTs are an asset class of its own, sharing to an extent, the characteristics of both shares and property direct