High-quality REITs will sustain their payouts

Article Excerpt

Despite the impact of COVID-19, we still like the outlook for these two REITs. Their high-quality properties should continue to attract tenants without having to offer them deep rent discounts. That should let them maintain their current distributions for investors. DREAM OFFICE REIT $18 is a buy. The REIT (Toronto symbol D.UN; Cyclical-Growth Dividend Payer Portfolio; Manufacturing sector; Units outstanding: 55.2 million; Market cap: $993.6 million; Dividend yield: 5.6%; Dividend Sustainability Rating: Average; www.dream.ca) launched a three-year strategic initiative in 2016. As part of that plan, it sold roughly 138 properties for $3.7 billion. It used $1.8 billion of the proceeds to pay down its high-interest debt. It also repurchased over $1.1 billion of its outstanding units. The trust has 31 office properties, including two under development. These properties have a total of 5.5 million square feet of gross leasable area. Also, the highly profitable downtown Toronto market supplies 84% of the REIT’s rental revenue. Its occupancy rate as of June 30, 2020, was 88.3%. In July…