Nareit Staff

When Real Estate companies are removed from the Financials Sector of the S&P Dow Jones Indices and become constituents of a new Real Estate Sector on September 16, the sector will be the eight largest of the 11 headline sectors that make up the S&P 1,500 Index.

Investors seeking income found it in the Specialty REITs sector’s 6.22 percent dividend yield – nearly double the dividend yield of the FTSE NAREIT All Equity REITs Index on August 31.

Single Family Homes was the top performing property segment in the Equity REIT industry for 2016 through August.  The segment delivered a 32.56 percent total return, more than twice the total return of the FTSE NAREIT All Equity REITs Index benchmark.

REIT returns nearly doubled those of the broader equity market in the first eight months of 2016.  The FTSE NAREIT All REITs Index, the broadest benchmark of the U.S. REIT market containing both Equity and Mortgage REITs, delivered a 14.18 percent total return in the year through August.

Stock exchange-listed REITs combine the investment benefits of real estate with the benefits of a liquid market, which has become progressively more so.

Six Equity REIT sectors had dividend yields at the end of July that exceeded the yield of the FTSE NAREIT All Equity REITs Index’s 3.47 percent.