Relationship between Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) and financial performance of selected investment banks in Nairobi County, Kenya.
Authors: Muigai Peris Wanjiku , Mutea Fredrick , Rintari Nancy 
Published: March 2022

Purpose: To investigate the relationship between real estate mutual funds investment and financial performance of selected investment banks in Nairobi County, Kenya.
Methodology: The study used descriptive research design. The target population was 22 investment banks in Nairobi Kenya whose respondents were 75 investment managers, 297 investment officers, 124 risk officers, and 161 quality assurance officers. Simple random sampling method was used to obtain a sample of 7 investment banks whose 22 investment managers, 89 investment officers, 38 risk officers, 48 quality assurance officers were included. This study used a questionnaire and secondary data collection form to gather data. This study conducted a pre-test at two randomly selected commercial banks branch in Meru County. These banks were housing finance bank and Kenya Commercial Bank. Inferential analysis generated included model summary to test the level of influence, analysis of variance to test hypothesis and regression coefficients to test the study’s model.
Results: The respondents agreed that there are reliable customer service services that boost client-bank relations which increases the confidence in investing even higher amounts of income towards REITs. (Mean-3.23). Despite that, respondents disagreed that investor’s wealth is able to grow especially due to profitable returns they generate as a result of engaging in real estate investment trusts (mean-2.23). In addition, the respondents disagreed that banks promote cultural and religion inclusivity by including products such as Islamic real estate investment trusts to incorporate Islams (mean-2.45). The model summary indicated that real estate investment trusts had an R-0.589 and an R-square of 0.347. This indicated that real estate investment trusts influenced 35% of financial performance. Durbin Watson’s value of 1.980 indicated a positive auto-correlation. The ANOVA analysis indicated that real estate investment trusts had an F-statistic of 7.033 and significance level of 0.009 which was below 0.05. There was a relationship between REITs and financial performance. The bank’s rate of return was low due to high price volatility. Investor’ high demand as compared to the supply of REITs by real estate sector played a significant effect on its prices. In addition, the study found out most real estate companies had not set out much REITs which made it tricky for investors to reap maximum returns on them.

Unique contribution to theory, policy and practice: Gaps were established on how real estate investment banks would incorporate diversity in their products. For example, the presence of Islamic real estate investment trusts was found to be missing in investment banks due to complicated Sharia laws on how interest should be accrued so that no party loses in the deal (both the banks and the investor). Investment banks management should develop various REITs products which incorporates diversity such as introducing Islamic products. Investment banks should develop partnership opportunities for real estate companies so that they are able to increase their investment products baskets. CMA should extend a hand to investment banks and firms so that they get appropriate prices on various REITs.