Private Property as an Investment Class

What returns and risk should investors expect from private property (real estate, privately owned infrastructure, collectibles and non-corporate business equity), characterized by infrequent trading, inexact market values and noisy returns? In their March 2021 paper entitled “Real and Private-Value Assets”, William Goetzmann, Christophe Spaenjers and Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh survey current research on private property returns and risks. They provide a rough value of U.S. private property and summarize research findings from 11 papers, focusing on: measurement of risk, return and liquidity; and, (2) drivers of variation in valuations and investment behavior. Based on relevant government and association data and recent/current papers, they find that: (more…)