The Role of Housing in a Mixed-Asset Portfolio: The Particular Case of Direct Housing within the Greater Paris area

Abstract

This article explores the role of physical residential real estate within the optimal multi-asset portfolio. Specifically, we consider direct housing within the Grand Paris metropolis between 1996 and 2017 as an asset class together with financial assets. Our findings bring several contributions to the residential market literature. First, directly held housing investment brings diversification benefits to the mixed-asset portfolio. Second, using hierarchical clustering technique, we divide the Greater Paris area into five homogenous groups of communes and compute the optimal weight of each commune as well as each group of communes in the tangency portfolio. Third, we check the weights’ stability through time and confirm that residential real estate always catches the highest weight in the optimal portfolio. Finally, we run additional tests to compare listed real estate performances in a mixed asset portfolio with those obtained by considering physical residential real estate. We conclude that listed real estate is not a substitute for direct housing.