Best REITs to Buy Right Now

Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) provide investors with an opportunity to earn passive income from real estate without directly owning properties. REITs own, operate, or finance income-generating properties across various sectors, including residential, commercial, industrial, healthcare, and retail real estate.

These investment vehicles are known for their high dividend yields, diversification benefits, and liquidity, as they are traded on major stock exchanges like traditional stocks. Whether you're looking for long-term growth, steady income, or inflation protection, REITs can be a valuable addition to an investment portfolio.

This article explores the best REITs that you can buy right now.

Best High Yield REITs

When selecting REITs to purchase, investors shouldn’t choose high-yielding stocks without considering the overall recent performance, safety, and reliability of the dividend and the company.

NewLake Capital Partners (OTCMKTS: NLCP)

NewLake Capital Partners (OTCMKTS: NLCP) is an internally managed specialized industrial REIT in New Canaan, CT, with 31 properties totaling 1.6 million square feet across 12 states. It specializes in triple-net leasing to cannabis companies and provides capital when necessary. 

NewLake was founded in 2019 and had its IPO in August 2021. Its tenants include the largest companies in the cannabis industry, such as Curaleaf, Cresco Labs, and Truelieve. As of March 2025, it has a market cap of nearly $320 million and a dividend yield of 11.28%.

Alpine Income Property Trust (NYSE: PINE)

Alpine Income Property Trust  (NYSE: PINE) is a Daytona Beach, FL-based retail REIT that owns and operates 138 high-quality net-leased properties of 3.8 million square feet across 35 states. 65% of its tenants are investment-grade companies such as Lowes, Dollar Tree, Walgreens, Walmart, Advanced Auto Parts and Dick’s Sporting Goods. It has a market cap of nearly $260 million and a dividend yield of 7.05%.

TPG Real Estate Finance Trust (NYSE: TRTX)

TPG Real Estate Finance Trust (NYSE: TRTX), a subsidiary of TPG Real Estate, is a mortgage REIT that originates, acquires, and manages commercial mortgage loans and other commercial real estate-related debt instruments in the United States. It has a portfolio of $3.5 billion first mortgage loans with an average loan size of $69.4 million in geographically diversified primary and select secondary markets across the U.S.

As of March 2025, it has a market cap of over $691 million and a dividend yield of 11.24%.

Best Growth REITs

When looking for the best growth REIT stocks to purchase, investors can feel confident about making the best selections by considering the company's long-term price history, regardless of where that price is today. These three REITs have a terrific appreciation history but lower dividend yields than many other REITs.

Iron Mountain Inc. (NYSE: IRM)

Iron Mountain Inc. (NYSE: IRM) is a Portsmouth, NH-based specialty REIT focused on information management and storage, data center infrastructure, and asset lifecycle management. It was founded in 1951 and has more than 240,000 customers worldwide. In recent years, Iron Mountain has shifted its focus from paper storage to data storage. 

Iron Mountain has produced a total gain of nearly 200% in the last five years.

American Tower Corp. (NYSE: AMT)

American Tower Corp. (NYSE: AMT) is a Boston, MA-based specialty REIT that calls itself “a global leader in wireless infrastructure.” Founded in 1995, American Tower owns, operates, and develops wireless and broadcast communications real estate. Most of its business is leasing space on wireless and broadcast towers and it also leases portions of the land below the building for equipment storage. Typical tower components are coaxial cabling and fiber optic cables.

American Tower has a presence in 224,000 global communication sites across 25 countries in six continents. About 43,000 properties are in the U.S. and Canada, and approximately 181,000 are international. Contracts usually have a term of five to 10 years, with renewal options and annual lease escalators of about 3%.

American Tower has been a leading growth REIT for many years. Over the past ten years, it’s had an annualized 10-year total return of 165.16%.

Terreno Realty Corporation (NYSE: TRNO)

Terreno Realty Corporation (NYSE: TRNO) is an industrial REIT that owns and operates 290 properties with 17.4 million square feet in six major coastal U.S. markets. Those areas are Miami, Northern New Jersey/New York City, Washington D.C., Seattle, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

As of December 31, 2024, Terreno owned a total of 299 buildings aggregating approximately 19.3 million square feet, 47 improved land parcels consisting of approximately 150.6 acres, six properties under development or redevelopment, and approximately 22.4 acres of land entitled for future development.

The company has a superior long-term growth record with a ten-year total return of 242.22%.  

Best Value REITs

Long-term investors looking for undervalued REITs should consider solid companies with good track records over the years that, for one reason or another, have fallen out of favor with Wall Street. These REITs now provide solid dividend yields for income investors, have low price/FFO ratios, and, over time, may provide solid appreciation once economic conditions improve. Let's take a look at some of them below.

Independence Realty Trust (NYSE: IRT)

Independence Realty Trust (NYSE: IRT) is a Philadelphia-based residential REIT that owns 110 multi-family properties with 32,685 units across 12 states. 74% of the portfolio is in the Sunbelt regions. Its investment strategy is focused on purchasing properties near major employment centers, with good school districts and higher-class retail stores.

Independence Realty has gained almost 70% in the last five years and has a Price/FFO ratio of 15.24. Independence pays a quarterly dividend of $0.16 per share and the annual dividend of $0.64 per share yields 3.45%.

Realty Income Corp. (NYSE: O)

Realty Income Corp. (NYSE: O) is a San Diego-based, triple-net lease REIT with over 15,450 properties worldwide. The “Monthly Dividend Company,” as it’s widely known, is a member of the S&P 500 and an S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrat.   

Realty Income remains one of the foremost REITs today and with good reason. Its total return since January 3, 1995, is 1,188.67%. With a P/FFO of only 14.19 and a history of trading above $70 as recently as 2022, this very popular REIT remains an excellent value play.

Realty Income has had a total gain of around 10% in the last year.

Regency Centers Corp. (Nasdaq: REG)

Regency Centers Corp. (Nasdaq: REG) is a Jacksonville, FL-based retail REIT founded in 1963 that owns and operates 482 properties totaling more than 61 million square feet in higher-income areas, mainly on the Eastern Coast of the U.S. Its portfolio, with over 9,000 tenants, has a 95.8% lease rate and includes 80% grocery-anchored properties, along with restaurants, service providers, medical spaces and higher-class retailers. Regency Centers is a member of the S&P 500.

Regency has gained 20% in the last year with an annualized dividend of $2.71 and dividend yield of 3.86%. The dividend is well covered, with a payout ratio of 128.67% and a price/FFO ratio of 16.53.

Recent REIT Analysis

What to Look for When Choosing the Best REITs

While publicly traded REITs are bought and sold on the stock market like any other publicly traded company, REITs are a unique asset class that needs to be analyzed differently than other stocks. 

Funds From Operations (FFO)

If you're familiar with stocks, you're most likely familiar with terms like earnings per share (EPS) and price-to-earnings ratio (p/e ratio). However, these metrics don't offer much help when looking at an equity REIT.

To understand a REIT's true cash flow, you have to look at its funds from operation (FFO). Since real estate is a depreciable asset, a REIT's reported net income includes a significant depreciation expense. It also includes capital gains and losses from the sale of properties, which don't represent what investors can expect the company to earn on a consistent basis.

FFO adds depreciation back into the REIT's net income and takes out any gains or losses on the sale of property, providing a more accurate picture of a REIT's true earnings.

To use FFO as a way to value REITs, we divide the REIT's current share price by its FFO per share to get a price-to-FFO ratio. We then compare the price to FFO of the different REITs in each real estate sector to find value opportunities.

Balance Sheet

REITs have to carry a lot of debt in order to finance the properties they purchase. This is especially true because REITs are required to pay out 90% of their taxable income to shareholders in the form of dividends. This doesn't leave REITs with the ability to stockpile a lot of cash.

It's important to make sure that the REIT you're investing in isn't carrying too much debt, though. The easiest way to do this is by looking at their total debt compared to their earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA). This is called a debt-to-EBITDA ratio.

For instance, if a REIT has a total of $1 billion in debt and its annual EBITDA is $250 million, you would divide $1 billion by $250 million to get a debt-to-EBITDA ratio of 4.

Ideally, you want to look for REITs with a debt-to-EBITDA ratio somewhere between 4 and 6. Anything above 6 and their balance sheet starts to look risky. You also want to make sure that they're not too conservative with their debt. A debt-to-EBITDA ratio below 4 can indicate that they're using too much cash that could be going to investors instead of utilizing debt.

A solid REIT management team will use a reasonable amount of debt to maximize their overall returns. This means more growth and higher dividends being paid to investors.

Dividends

One of the greatest advantages of REITs is their dividends. On average, REITs pay out significantly higher dividends than most other dividend stocks. 

You want to be careful not to get caught in a yield trap, though. Some REITs may increase their dividend payments to an amount they can’t sustain in order to attract or keep shareholders. They also may put off cutting dividends when their FFO has dropped. In either case, buying a REIT with a dividend it can’t sustain is a quick way to lose money. 

To get an idea as to whether a REIT’s dividend is safe, you’ll want to look at the FFO payout ratio. This compares the company’s FFO per share to its dividend rate. 

For instance, if a REIT has an FFO per share of $2 and a dividend payment of $1.50 per share, you’ll simply divide the dividend rate by the FFO per share to get 75%. 

Ideally, the REIT’s FFO payout ratio will be somewhere between 70% - 80%. However, a lower payout ratio is fine if you’re happy with the yield. A slightly higher payout ratio isn’t necessarily a red flag as long as they’ve consistently maintained that payout ratio while either keeping or increasing their dividend payments over time. 

Real Estate

You can’t forget that investing in a REIT is essentially investing in a real estate portfolio. If you were buying properties directly instead of investing in a REIT, you would want to invest in assets that would provide you the greatest potential return with the least amount of risk possible. You want to look at REITs the same way. 

If you’re looking for a dependable REIT, you’ll want to look at ones that invest in a property type with a strong outlook. For instance, if you think shopping malls are doomed you won’t want to invest in a REIT that owns a lot of shopping malls. 

REIT ETFs

A REIT ETF is an exchange-traded fund that invests in REITs and other real estate stocks. These funds typically follow a REIT index and have a diversified portfolio with investments spread out across multiple companies.

Investing in The Best REITs

A REIT’s recent financials provide a great basis for choosing the best ones to buy, but major changes can happen between quarterly filings. Before investing in a real estate stock, be sure to look for recent news about any acquisitions, dispositions, offerings, or any other relevant news that can affect their future performance.

Other intriguing REITs include the Plymouth Industrial REIT, Emirates REIT, U.S. REIT ETF, and the Apple Hospitality REIT.

You can learn more about how to use REITs to invest in the real estate market with our guide on How to Invest in REITs.

Related content: BEST HIGH-YIELD REITS

Frequently Asked Questions