The Canadian REITs listed on the TSX that we have discovered have strong dividend yields and superior year-to-date returns when compared to their peers
SmallCapPower | July 10, 2019: Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) allow investors to invest in real estate by buying units in commercial real estate portfolios. The REIT takes care of operating expenses, owning or financing the income-producing properties for investors. To be considered a REIT the Company must return a minimum of 90% of its taxable income each year to its shareholders in the form of dividends. Today we have identified four Canadian REITs that have strong dividend yields as well as YTD returns. For reference, the chosen REITs were from a list of 46 TSX-listed REITs that had an average dividend yield of 5.5%.
*Share prices as at close July 8, 2019, data obtained from S&P Capital IQ
True North Commercial Real Estate Investment Trust (TSX:TNT.UN) – $6.63
Equity Real Estate Investment
True North Commercial Real Estate is an unincorporated, open-ended real estate investment trust. True North Commercial Real Estate currently owns and operates a portfolio of 46 commercial proprieties, which total 3.73M sq. ft of space in urban and select strategic secondary markets across Canada. The Company’s properties are in British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia. The properties have a 97% occupancy rate as of March 15, 2019. The Company generates 38% of its revenue from government tenants and 41% from credit-rated tenants. On June 17, 2019, the Company announced its June 2019 monthly cash distribution of $0.0495 per unit.
- Market Cap: $381.7 Million
- YTD Return: 16.8%
- Dividend Yield: 9.0%
- 30-Day Average Daily Volume (1,000s): 66
- 90-Day Average Daily Volume (1,000s): 80
BTB Real Estate Investment Trust (TSX:BTB.UN) – $4.72
Equity Real Estate Investment
BTB Real Estate Investment is a real estate investment trust that owns properties in eastern Canada. As at June 25, 2019, BTB Real Estate owned 67 commercial, office and industrial properties for a total leasable area of about 5.7 M sq. ft and an estimated market value of approximately $900M. BTB offers a distribution reinvestment plan that allows unitholders to have the option to have their monthly cash distribution reinvested into additional units of BTB, at a price based on the weighted average price for BTB’s units for the five days preceding the distribution date, discounted at 3%. On June 25, 2019, the Company announced the acquisition of two properties in the South Shore of Montreal, Quebec for $62.2M. This follow an announcement on June 13, 2019, when the Company announced its distribution of $0.035 per unit for the month of June 2019, representing $0.42 per unit on an annualized basis.
- Market Cap: $291.9 Million
- YTD Return: 8.5%
- Dividend Yield: 8.9%
- 30-Day Average Daily Volume (1,000s): 138
- 90-Day Average Daily Volume (1,000s): 119
Automotive Properties Real Estate Investment Trust (TSX:APR.UN) – $10.46
Equity Real Estate Investment
Automotive Properties REIT is an unincorporated, open-ended real estate investment trust that focuses on owning and acquiring primarily income-producing automotive dealership properties across Canada. Currently, the Company has a portfolio that consists of 60 income-producing commercial properties that represent more than 2M sq. ft of gross leasable area in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, and Quebec. On June 25, 2019, the Company announced it completed the acquisition of a portfolio of three dealership properties in Canada from AutoCanada. The total purchase price is about $30.4M, excluding closing costs. On June 17, 2019, the Company announced its June 2019 cash distribution of $0.067 per REIT unit, which represents $0.80 per REIT on an annualized basis.
- Market Cap: $311.7 Million
- YTD Return: 16.7%
- Dividend Yield: 7.7%
- 30-Day Average Daily Volume (1,000s): 137
- 90-Day Average Daily Volume (1,000s): 74
Dream Industrial Real Estate Investment (TSX:DIR.UN) – $12.09
Equity Real Estate Investment
Dream Industrial REIT is an unincorporated, open-ended real-estate investment trust. Currently, the Company has a portfolio of 246 geographically-diversified industrial distribution and warehouse properties that it owns and operates. The Company’s properties have an aggregate of 24M sq. ft of gross leasable area that are in Canadian and U.S. markets. For reference, gross leasable area is the amount of floor space that is able to be rented at a commercial property. Dream currently has over 1,400 tenants. On June 19, 2019, the Company announced its June 2019 monthly distribution of $0.05833 per unit. This follows an announcement from June 17, 2019, where the Company announced the sale of all of the Trust’s properties that are located in the Eastern Canada region to KingSett Capital for gross proceeds of $271M before closing costs. The sale consists of 38 properties, with approximately 2.8M sq. ft of leasable space, which is expected to close in Q3/19.
- Market Cap: $1,447.3 Million
- YTD Return: 27.4%
- Dividend Yield: 5.8%
- 30-Day Average Daily Volume (1,000s): 618
- 90-Day Average Daily Volume (1,000s): 429
Disclosure: Neither the author nor his family own shares in any of the companies mentioned above.
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