This paper first documents the impacts of property age on the operational efficiency, portfolio risk and market valuation of REITs. Based on the findings, we examine three possible explanations why REITs own older properties. Using a comprehensive property-level data set of U.S. equity REITs from 1995 to 2020, we construct a firm-level property age measure based on the age of individual properties held by REITs. Controlling for important firm characteristics, we find that REITs holding more older properties exhibit lower operational efficiency, lower firm value and higher firm risk than their counterparts. Moreover, while the stockholders do not enjoy higher stock returns, we find evidence that managers of REITs that carry more aged properties in their portfolios earn significantly higher compensation. This is consistent with agency cost associated with managerial opportunism. Furthermore, REITs that own more properties in the same locations as their headquareters and those with higher geographic concentration of properties tend to hold older properties. This finding is consistent with the hypothesis based on geographic locations of older properties. We, however, do not find evidence supporting the growth hypothesis associated with core-plus or value-add investment strategies.

本文首先记录了房产年龄对 REITs 运营效率、投资组合风险和市场估值的影响。根据调查结果，我们研究了房地产投资信托基金拥有较旧房产的三种可能的解释。我们使用 1995 年至 2020 年美国股本 REITs 的综合财产级数据集，根据 REITs 持有的单项财产的年龄构建了公司级财产年龄衡量标准。控制重要的公司特征后，我们发现持有更多旧房产的 REITs 与同行相比表现出较低的运营效率、较低的公司价值和较高的公司风险。此外，虽然股东没有享受到更高的股票回报，但我们发现有证据表明，在投资组合中持有更多老化房产的房地产投资信托基金的管理者可以获得更高的报酬。这与管理机会主义相关的代理成本是一致的。此外，在总部相同地点拥有更多房产的房地产投资信托基金以及房地产地理集中度较高的房地产投资信托基金往往持有较旧的房产。这一发现与基于旧房产地理位置的假设是一致的。然而，我们没有找到支持与核心增值或增值投资策略相关的增长假设的证据。