Short-Term REIT Performance under Pandemic Conditions

The Corona virus pandemic and the subsequent economic slowdown provide an opportunity to examine the relative performance of US REITs during a period of extreme market disruption. We investigate the short-term response of US REITs during this period by employing event study methodology with four market models and three distinct pandemic related event dates. In order to examine the performance across market sectors the returns on REIT indexes are considered instead of individual REITs. The empirical results provide additional evidence with respect to the performance of REITs relative to the overall market and the benefits derived from including REITs in a portfolio during adverse market conditions.