Real estate assets on corporate balance sheets

Abstract

Surveys of senior real estate executives have previously indicated that real estate represents approximately 25 per cent of corporate worth. These surveys, however, relied on self reported estimates of current real estate value. This study uses objective data to investigate the proportionate value that real estate represents on corporate balance sheets. The findings indicate that, when buildings are adjusted for inflation, real estate represents about 40 per cent of total corporate assets. Since corporate worth may also be measured in market value terms, several indexes were constructed to measure the proportion of firm market value represented by real estate assets. With buildings inflation adjusted, real estate represents about 80 per cent of firm market value. Although firm size does have an impact on all the ratios computed in this study, the impact is fairly modest in virtually all cases