Abstract
This paper examines the profitability and investors' preference for REIT stocks. IV analysis for panel data of the profitability, types, scales and location of the real estate investment trusts (REITs) and Tobin's Q ratio analysis of REITs show that large scale REITs and high rate of debt can contribute to high profit, and that the office type REITs can lead to high profitability rather than the residential type REITs. Tobit analysis of institutional ownership also shows that financial organizations such as banks, insurance companies invest on REIT stocks positively and that investors for REIT stocks show rather high risk preferences.
