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An increasing number of mainstream finance and accounting studies have been devoted to assess the linkage between carbon emissions and firms’ value. However, a majority of these studies focus on direct carbon-intensive firms or firms from all sectors. No empirical study has examined the impact of carbon disclosure on the performance of real estate sector, which is an indirect carbon-intensive sector. This study aims to fill this gap by examining whether there is a carbon-efficiency premium for real estate companies. Specifically, the linkages between the level of carbon emissions and financial return of international real estate companies are scrutinized. The dataset of Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) over 2010-2015 was utilised. The results assert that an enhanced financial return is associated with a lower level of carbon emissions, reflecting that there is a carbon-efficiency premium. Further we also found some empirical evidence to support the notion of asymmetric market valuation of carbon emissions. Specifically, market participants only price direct carbon emissions, whilst no comparable is found for indirect carbon emissions. The practical implications of the findings are also discussed.

Chinese outward investment into real estate has increased tremendously in recent years. However, the growth of Chinese outward real estate investment has attracted little attention in the literature. This study examines the factors driving this growth and extent of which the established general theory of foreign direct investment can explain the Chinese outward real estate investment (FDIRE). Using the unique dataset of Chinese outward real estate investment collected from Real Capital Analytics, we quantify the main drivers of China’s outward FDIRE across a range of variables. The results show that both the established general theories and real estate specific factors together explain the Chinese outward real estate investment. Specifically, market size and cultural proximity have a positive influence on Chinese FDIRE outflows. In addition, transparency has an impact on Chinese foreign real estate investment via an interaction term with market size. Specifically, transparency only has an acute impact on Chinese outward real estate investment in larger markets with more opportunities. The implications of the findings have also been discussed