Structural breaks and diversification: The impact of the 1997 Asian financial crisis on the integration of Asia-Pacific real estate markets

Abstract

Currently, there exists relatively little research on the influence that the 1997 Asian financial crisis has had upon capital flows within the property market and the associated long-run implications of it. This paper examines the impact that the crisis has had upon the integration and dynamic links between a number of Asia-Pacific real estate markets. The results show that Asia-Pacific property markets are integrated, despite a structural shift occurring at the time of the crisis. These results are a particularly important finding for fund managers concerned with the impact of globalization on the performance of their real estate portfolios, showing that in the Asia-Pacific region diversification benefits are actually less than that suggested by an analysis incorrectly ignoring the crisis.