Financial Performance of Real Estate Investment Funds: Bibliometric Analysis and Systematic Literature Review

Abstract: The aim of this article is to detect gaps in knowledge about the financial performance of real estate investment funds, considering the volatility of these funds due to their variable income nature (Berk, Demarzo, & Harford, 2009). To this end, a bibliometric analysis and systematic review was carried out on the topic, using the Web of Science and SCOPUS databases. The results showed gaps in knowledge, especially on the need to expand the diversification of research methods and economic variables in harmony with macroeconomic indices and those specific to the real estate market, such as liquidity, profitability, vacancy and property prices, ensuring, at all times, that the data periods covered regular economic cycles and crises. This article therefore favors the bibliometric analysis of the most recent studies into the financial performance of global real estate investment funds, highlighting gaps in knowledge on the topic and presenting suggestions for future research. In the course of the bibliometric analysis, it was detected that despite the increase in returns on real estate investment funds, which reflects the importance of the topic, there is a shortage of studies combining the quantitative (bibliometric analysis) and qualitative (systematic literature) review methods.

Key words: real estate, REIT, fund performance, bibliometric analysis, systematic review

JEL codes: G11, G15, G20 , G23