PORTFOLIO OUTLOOK OF HEALTHCARE REITS: FINDINGS FROM SINGAPORE AND U.S. REITS

Abstract

The changing demographics and the flourishing REIT sector, which are seemingly unrelated factors, form the main driving force for the study of Healthcare REITs. This research aims to examine 1. The return and risks behaviour of healthcare REITs relative to conventional REITs and market indices and 2. Whether the return performance in Singapore exhibit similar behaviour to that of U.S. healthcare REITs.

For the first objective, findings from this dissertation indicate that healthcare REITs have outshined conventional SREITs over the entire sampled period which includes pre, during and post GFC periods. Although the paired t-tests indicate that the differences in mean performance are statistically insignificant during the pre-crisis and crisis period, returns on a risk-adjusted basis indicate that healthcare REITs possess high return and low risk qualities, thus retaining their shine.

Based on a series of analysis, results show that U.S and Singapore Healthcare REITs do not exhibit similar performance. Singapore-listed healthcare REITs have shown to be outperformers than its foreign counterparts in the U.S. This dissertation has attempted to uncover the possible factors behind the disparity in performance by looking closely into the compositions of the respective portfolio.