Thesis Topic discussion - Property Investment

Moollerice

A little help/guidance or discussion needed.

I am at the early (the proposal) stage of my thesis for my degree in property economics, basically looking through topics trying to find one that is interesting, relevant and has enough previous research in order to complete without getting stuck in the mud which can turn to quick sand halfway through the thesis.

REIT's is the area I'm being attracted to at the minute, macroeconomic issues which affect their values maybe or a study into direct and indirect investment vehicles and which is more advantageous. With REIT's being relativity new to Irish investment the information might not be there just yet however.

Does anybody have other ideas or topics around that area which they find interesting at the minute or suitable.. I'm open to discuss

ixus

Likely your main REIT data is US based. Can you take a study on it and put an Irish twist to it?

Brussels Sprout

The New Central Bank Rules: the rational behind their introduction and their initial affect on supply and demand.

Moollerice

Yeah understand that most of the data will come from the US, close to 60 years worth of data there compared to under 5 years here in Ireland.

The implications their introduction has had on the Irish commercial property market may be interesting too, many of the developments that are currently on-going in Dublin are being funded in part by REIT's such as Green and Hibernia!

Leveraging possibly too, and what is the optimum levels of debt v equity for a REIT

The "new" central bank rules is not a area I would like pursue really thanks for the input though

daheff

Could you do a thesis using the 60 years of US/Canadian data to infer an outcome for the Irish market after 10-20 years of REITS?

Not sure what your hypothesis would be, and how you would prove/disprove it though.

philippoc93

Building on Brussel Sprouts reply, you  could go further and look at how the recent government initiatives around reduced development levies/increased vacant land levies, new help to buy tax rebates for FTB, changes to social housing provision part V might affect the supply/demand equation in the next few years. 

It could develop into an overall look at balancing act that the government tries to play in managing housing supply in Ireland. 

A little left field, but you could compare what they did in the past (helping to cause this current crisis), analyse what they are doing now and make recommendations based on any insights that you come across in your research. You could study how other governments have intervened in the past as other reference points.

Best of luck.