Financialization of the Real Estate Market in Spain

Abstract

The process of financialization of the economy greatly affects the real estate sector, a sector that represents two-thirds of the planet's total capital and which is highly attractive to investors at the same time as low risk. The transfer of real estate assets to companies that base their business on leasing models is led by the tax figure of Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs). This work analyzes its impact in Spain from its initial regulation in 2009, studying its financial results from the points of view of the volatility of the sector and the generation of results. It highlights, on the one hand, the importance of the revaluation of the assets themselves and their accounting in the results and, on the other, the increase in market volatility under a high level of liquidity and a modification of the leverage criteria. The results show how the objectives of public policies of increasing liquidity and energizing the market present another side of the coin, effects of attracting capital and generating uncertainty in the sector, results opposite to the objectives of facilitating access to the home.