Real estate investment trusts (REITs) resemble income trusts, but with a key difference: REITs invest in income-producing real estate, such as office buildings and hotels.

High-quality real estate investment trusts can make attractive, lower-risk additions to your portfolio. Even so, we continue to advise against overindulging in REITs.

But if you’re thinking of investing in some of Canada’s top REITs, here …read more »

FirstService Corp., symbol FSV on Toronto, serves the following areas of the real-estate market: commercial real estate; residential property management; and property improvement.

FirstService is one of the stocks we cover in Stock Pickers Digest, our newsletter for aggressive investing.

In the three months ended December 31, 2010, the real estate investment’s revenue jumped 18.5%, to $552.1 million from $465.8 million a …read more »

Pat McKeough, host of TSI Network (www.tsinetwork.ca), was recently featured in an article in the Financial Post written by William Hanley.

Entitled “One in five Canadians eyeing U.S. housing market,” the article features Pat’s views on investing in U.S. real estate, including the costs and risks.

If you’re interested in reading more, click here to see the full article. The article was …read more »

DUNDEE REIT $30.90 (Toronto symbol D.UN; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (416-365-3535; www.dundeereit.com; Shares outstanding: 41.9 million; Market cap: $1.3 billion; Dividend yield: 7.1%) owns and manages 14.5 million square feet of office, industrial and retail space. The trust’s occupancy rate is 96.1%.

In the three months ended December 31, 2010, Dundee’s revenue rose 61.8%, to $72.8 million from $50.2 million a year …read more »

ISHARES CDN REIT SECTOR INDEX FUND $14.43 (Toronto symbol XRE; buy or sell through a broker; ca.ishares.com) holds the 13 Canadian real estate investment trusts (REITs) in the S&P/TSX Capped REIT Index. The weight of any one REIT is limited to 25% of iShares CDN REIT Sector Index Fund’s value.

iShares CDN REIT’s expenses are just 0.55% of its assets.

RioCan REIT …read more »

RIOCAN REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUST $23.94 (Toronto symbol REI.UN; Units outstanding: 250.9 million; Market cap: $6.0 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Average; Dividend yield: 5.8%; www.riocan.com) is Canada’s largest real estate investment trust (REIT). It has interests in 297 shopping malls in Canada, including 10 under development. These properties contain over 70 million square feet of leaseable area. The trust has a …read more »

This time of year, you’ll often hear discussions about the proper “asset allocation”, or the mix of stocks, bonds and cash that you should hold in your portfolio at various stages of life. A Successful Investor Wealth Management client once asked a related question that rarely gets the attention it deserves. He asked where investing in real estate fits in …read more »

PRIMARIS RETAIL REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUST $20.25 (Toronto symbol PMZ.UN; Units outstanding: 68.6 million; Market cap: $1.4 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk; Dividend yield: 6.0%) owns large malls in medium-sized Canadian cities. It also owns major shopping centres in suburbs of large cities. In all, the trust owns 29 properties that contain 11.1 million square feet of leasable area.

Primaris has …read more »

ALLIED PROPERTIES REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUST $21.54 (Toronto symbol AP.UN; Units outstanding: 42 million; Market cap: $904.4 million; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk; Dividend yield: 6.1%) owns office buildings in Toronto, Montreal, Quebec City and Winnipeg. These mainly Class I properties contain over 6.3 million square feet of leasable area.

Class I refers to 19th and early 20th-century light industrial buildings that …read more »

Real estate investment trusts (REITs) are exempt from Ottawa’s income-trust tax, which came into effect January 1, 2011. That exemption is making REITs’ high yields more attractive as trusts convert to corporations or cut their distributions in response to the new tax. Our REIT recommendations have all moved up, but we still think they offer attractive long-term returns at relatively …read more »