No matter what you might think about Congress at any given moment, you have to tip your cap to their creation of the real estate investment trust (REIT).
The establishment of this real estate business structure helped to democratize real estate investing—while most people are priced out of the six-digit figures needed to buy investment homes or the seven- and eight-digit dollar amounts necessary to own commercial properties, REITs allow us to enjoy the gains (and income!) of all sorts of real estate for the uber-affordable cost of a share of stock.
The advent of REITs didn’t take all the bricks off our shoulders, of course. We still have to research the best REITs to buy if we want to maximize our real estate investments. But we’ll see if we can help out on that front.
Today, I’ll review seven REITs that enjoy high ratings from Wall Street’s research community. And true to REITs’ income-friendly nature, this list’s picks range in yield from 2x to 10x what the S&P 500 pays today.
Editor’s Note: Tabular information presented in this article is up-to-date as of Jan. 29, 2026.
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Disclaimer: This article does not constitute individualized investment advice. Individual securities, funds, and/or other investments appear for your consideration and not as personalized investment recommendations. Act at your own discretion.
Table of Contents
What Are Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs)?
A real estate investment trust, often referred to as a REIT (pronounced “reet”) is a unique class of investment. But if you break down each of those terms that make up the name of this asset, it will begin to make more sense.
The first two words designate the kinds of companies you’ll be investing in. All REITs are companies that must have at least 75% of their total assets in real estate, and must derive at least 75% of its gross income from properties. That might sound obvious, but keep in mind that some REITs don’t own any physical property at all and are simply involved in mortgage paper. Even REITs that deal in physical real estate differ widely from one another. Some lease pretty common properties such as apartments, strip malls, or hotels. Others lease driving ranges or telecom towers instead of more conventional commercial real estate.
In other words: The universe of real estate investment trusts is quite varied, even if property is at the foundation of all REIT business models.
The last two words, “investment trust,” are also important in defining how these companies treat their investors. There are certain thresholds that set REITs apart from conventional publicly traded company stocks, including a mandate that they have no more than 50% ownership resting in the hands of five or fewer investors.
But perhaps the most important rule you need to know about real estate investment trusts is that they must pay at least 90% of taxable income to shareholders in the form of dividends each year. This demand for consistent income is a big reason many investors are drawn to REITs, particularly as a way to boost their retirement savings through regular dividends.
2 Types of REITs to Know
The REIT universe is sometimes divided into two distinct flavors: equity REITs and mortgage REITs. While they’re very closely related because both deal with real estate, their business models are extremely different.
And right now, amid a volatile interest-rate environment, the distinction is pretty important to acknowledge.
Let’s take a look at each type.
1. Equity REITs
If you’ve been investing for a while you’ve probably come across the word “equity” before. The term is shorthand for a direct ownership stake—and some investors even use the term “equities” to refer to the stock market as a whole, as shares of publicly traded companies are in fact equity stakes in individual businesses.
Equity REITs, then, are directly invested in real estate assets. They own or manage properties ranging from office buildings to shopping centers to apartment complexes, leasing that space and generating income from the rents. And publicly traded equity REITs allow you to enjoy in that exposure through their shares, which you can purchase through any traditional brokerage account.
Related: The 9 Best Dividend Stocks for Beginners
2. Mortgage REITs
Mortgage REITs, on the other hand, don’t traffic in real estate properties—instead, they deal with debt. They finance real estate, operating less like a traditional REIT and more like a financial firm. This is done by either originating mortgages, or buying and selling those mortgages and related mortgage-backed securities. It also commonly involves borrowing heavily to then trade all that mortgage paper at scale. Their profits, then, tend to revolve around net interest income (NII): the difference between the interest revenue they generate and the financing costs on all their assets.
This fundamentally makes mortgage REITs riskier than equity REITs. After all, the 2008 financial crisis was caused in large part by financial firms borrowing heavily to invest in the debts of third parties. Particularly in the current interest rate environment, where borrowing is getting steadily more expensive all around, that’s a tough spot to be in.
That said, many mortgage REITs offer twice or even thrice the income potential of equity REITs. These dividends might be at risk of evaporating if things go south, but if they hold up, investors will be richly rewarded for looking beyond the conventional players on Wall Street.
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7 Best REITs to Buy Now
You already might be wondering how to decide between mortgage REITs or equity REITs, or whether you should invest in a small commercial real estate firm or a big industrial park operator. After all, there’s a great big world of real estate investing out there!
The answer is: There is no one right answer for everyone. With so many things on Wall Street, your unique risk tolerance and retirement planning needs are critical to deciding the best REITs to buy in 2026.
The following list should get you pointed in the right direction, however. All seven of these leading real estate investment trusts offer significant income and the potential for long-term upside if things pan out in 2026 and beyond.
All REITs listed in order of yield, from smallest to largest.
Related: How to Invest in Private Real Estate With Private Equity Funds
7. Equinix
— REIT industry: Datacenters
— Market capitalization: $81.1 billion
— Dividend yield: 2.3%
Equinix (EQIX) is an attractive REIT for investors looking for a play on megatrends including cloud computing, big data, and artificial intelligence.
EQIX is the largest global data center and colocation provider for enterprise networks. In other words, Equinix is responsible for the actual server rooms that house all the bits and bytes that power all the content and software we offload to “the cloud” without really considering where the cloud is.
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Considering the fact that cloud-based software is now just the normal way of doing business, that creates a massive opportunity for Equinix as one of the largest specialized firms in the space. This digital infrastructure provider boasts almost half a million connections to more than 10,000 customers, with a global reach of 77 metro areas in 36 countries. Those numbers will surely grow, with the company currently working on 58 projects in 34 markets in 24 countries.
“Equinix sits at the epicenter of most of the world’s internet traffic and is exposed to strong secular tailwinds involving hybrid IT and digital content,” says Stifel analyst Erik Rasmussen, who rates the stock at Buy. “We view EQIX as a core holding for both tech-focused and real estate investment portfolios as its business model captures a desirable mix of growth and stable recurring cash flows, which should drive a high single-digit, low-double-digit dividend [compound annual growth rate] for years to come.”
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Stifel is among several analysts that remain bullish on Equinix’s prospects in 2026 after a lousy 2025.
“We expect the 2026 guidance outlook presented upon the 4Q earnings release will support multiple expansion by reflecting acceleration in recurring revenue growth,” says Citi analyst Michael Rollins, who adds that shares have become the firm’s top pick. “We are encouraged by Equinix’s ongoing operating momentum and its strategy to improve performance by opening capacity sooner, pre-selling capacity, investing in system modernization and consolidation, accelerating cost takeouts, and benefiting from better interest rates and additional capitalization for development/land.”
And despite what a relatively modest 2.3% yield might imply, Equinix has been downright aggressive in sharing its wealth with EQIX holders. The payout has grown by nearly 180% over the past 10 years … it’s just that the shares have risen every bit as rapidly. Equinix’s stock is up 175% on a pure price basis in the past decade. Including dividends, shareholders have enjoyed a 230% total return.
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6. Ventas
— REIT industry: Medical and senior housing
— Market capitalization: $36.0 billion
— Dividend yield: 2.5%
Ventas (VTR) is one of the market’s largest health care REITs, boasting more than 1,400 properties in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. This includes more than 850 senior housing communities, with the rest spread across outpatient medical, research, hospitals, long-term acute care, in-patient rehabilitation, and skilled-nursing facilities.
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In short: Ventas sits at the intersection of a number of “necessary” health care properties.
Real estate broadly took a hit from the COVID pandemic, but operators like Ventas were among the hardest hit. VTR in specific hemorrhaged roughly three-quarters of its value in less than two months as residents fled its senior housing and skilled-nursing facilities. That prompted its push into medical office real estate, which provided some stability. But the demographics that lifted senior housing and nursing operators certainly didn’t disappear, and now those properties are back in the spotlight.
“Ventas SHOP assets include independent living, assisted living, and memory care environments, many with high-end amenities which add pricing power,” Argus Research analyst Marie Ferguson (Buy) says. “The shares have the potential to trade on stronger fundamentals and to participate in sector momentum should interest rates decline.”
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Ventas isn’t resting on this tailwind, however; it’s also maximizing its senior housing properties by converting many of them from triple-net lease (NNN)—where tenants are responsible for taxes, maintenance, and insurance, and Ventas just cashes a check—to its more actively managed Senior Housing Operating Portfolio (SHOP). These SHOP properties have so far been a significant driver of net operating income (NOI). Indeed, Ventas believes SHOP’s cash NOI will finish 2025 with between 14% and 16% growth, and that guidance is better than it was a few months ago.
“The external growth recovery that we expected for the overall REIT group has not materialized as a whole, which arguably makes VTR’s external growth dynamic stand out a bit more to us,” say JPMorgan analysts, who rate the stock at Overweight (equivalent of Buy).
Ventas also was forced to slash its dividend during COVID, from 79¢ per share to 45¢, where it remained for years. However, in Q1 2025, the company finally delivered positive movement, announcing a 6.7% hike to the payout, to 48¢ per share.
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5. EastGroup Properties
— REIT industry: Industrial
— Market capitalization: $9.7 billion
— Dividend yield: 3.5%
EastGroup Properties (EGP) boasts more than 64 million square feet worth of business distribution and other industrial properties across 12 states, predominantly in the American Sun Belt.
Specifically, EGP has homed in on properties of between 20,000 and 100,000 square feet—within the “shallow bay” (20,000-140,000 square feet) segment of distribution centers, which are often located in urban or suburban areas that are close to consumer markets. This type of property has seen much smaller inventory growth compared to “larger box” centers, but also lower vacancy and availability rates.
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“EGP offers earnings and [net asset value] upside from the embedded portfolio [mark-to-market] and continued execution on the development front, which delivers premium yields that are still accretive relative to an elevated cost of capital,” Citi analyst Craig Mailman (Buy) says. “In addition, demand for EGP’s shallow bay industrial product remains strong, and the largely Sun Belt market portfolio is seeing an increased level of national tenants vs. a more regional base previously.”
Growth has been elusive over the past couple of years. However, EastGroup remains one of the highest-quality REITs in the industrial segment, boasting healthy cash-flow growth and very low debt leverage compared to its peers, making it one of the best REITs to buy in 2026 for investors seeking out safer real estate.
EGP’s dividend, meanwhile, has grown for 14 consecutive years, and in 30 of the past 33 years.
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4. Essential Properties Realty Trust
— REIT industry: Retail
— Market capitalization: $6.0 billion
— Dividend yield: 4.2%
Essential Properties Realty Trust (EPRT) is a retail REIT, which doesn’t exactly have the best of connotations. More recently, that’s because of the hammering the sector took during COVID, but longer-term, it’s because of the hits that malls and other retail properties have suffered amid the emergence and growth of e-commerce.
Fortunately, EPRT isn’t that kind of retail REIT.
Essential Properties owns and manages more than 2,260 single-tenant properties spanning more than 600 tenants in 48 states. In fact, despite being a “retail” REIT, only about 3% of the portfolio’s cash annualized base rent (ABR) comes from true retail—and the lion’s share of that is from grocery stores, which have been extremely durable. More than 75% of ABR is service-based, another 15% is experience-focused, and about 5% comes from industrial properties. Top industries right now include car washes, early childhood education, medical and dental, quick-service shops, and automotive service.
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“The top 10 tenants represent <20% of [annualized base rent, or ABR] (below peers), the portfolio includes 350+ total tenants, and no tenant is >3% ABR,” says Truist Managing Director Michael Lewis, who counts EPRT among the firm’s highest-conviction Buys. He adds that Essential Properties boasts a “strong balance sheet with sufficient liquidity that can support the growth strategy for the next 12 months.”
Sure, the word “essential” might be doing a lot of work, but EPRT still isn’t as exposed to economic whims as, say, a mall where most of its stores are selling jeans or jewelry.
This business model has delivered unsurprisingly steady (and at times, surprisingly robust) growth, and Essential Properties has been more than eager to share the benefits with its stock holders. The company has been raising its dividend semiannually for years; including a modest 2% hike announced in June 2025, the quarterly payout is 25% higher than where it was five years ago.
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3. Ryman Hospitality Properties
— REIT industry: Lodging and hospitality real estate
— Market capitalization: $6.0 billion
— Dividend yield: 5.0%
Ryman Hospitality Properties (RHP) is a specialist within the hotel REIT world. Its properties don’t house bog-standard hotels like Holiday Inn and Motel 6, but instead upscale convention center resorts—and it even owns some entertainment properties, too.
On the property side, its portfolio is composed of just a handful of resorts—but these mega-hotels, including the Gaylord Opryland, JW Marriott San Antonio Hill Country, and Gaylord Rockies, represent more than 12,000 rooms and 3 million square feet of total indoor and outdoor meeting space. In entertainment, the company also owns a roughly 70% controlling ownership interest in Opry Entertainment Group, whose entities include the Grand Ole Opry, Ryman Auditorium, and WSM 650 AM; and a majority interest in festival and events business Southern Entertainment.
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That differentiation is important. Wall Street is largely down on many hotel REITs amid economic lethargy straining both leisure and business demand. Ryman is absolutely exposed to those same pressures—Citi’s Nick Joseph, who rates the stock at Buy, nonetheless cautions that “while longer-term trends appear solid, we believe management commentary around booking patterns and expenses will be important to near-term performance.”
Still, if you prefer to have some exposure to hospitality, the unique nature of both its hotel properties and highly in-demand Nashville entertainment presence make Ryman one of the best REITs to buy for 2026.
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2. VICI Properties
— REIT industry: Gaming and hospitality
— Market capitalization: $30.0 billion
— Dividend yield: 6.3%
VICI Properties (VICI) specializes in gaming, hospitality, and entertainment properties. While you’re probably most familiar with its Vegas real estate, which includes Caesars Palace Las Vegas, MGM Grand, and the Venetian Resort Las Vegas, VICI actually owns 54 gaming properties and 39 other “experiential” properties—such as golf courses and Bowlero bowling alleys—across roughly two dozen states and Canada.
VICI and other gaming REITs are a way to invest in gambling/gaming with the potential for less volatility—nice to have a lot of the time, but especially important as we head into a 2026 in which Americans’ discretionary spending could remain challenged. That’s because these REITs’ revenues aren’t directly driven by ups and downs in the business; they collect rent. So while a prolonged economic downturn could weigh on operators’ ability to pay their bills, VICI is a bit more insulated from quarter-to-quarter issues.
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Indeed, not only does VICI specifically have lease escalators that help ensure steadier growth going forward, but those escalators—at either the rate of inflation (via the consumer price index, or CPI) or 1.7% for non-CPI escalators—are above the industry average.
“We think the company has strong earnings visibility for 2025 (4-5% AFFO growth),” says JPMorgan North American Equity Research (Overweight, equivalent of Buy). “Its investment activity has been more varied as it diversifies into other areas of experiential real estate (i.e., youth sports, golf, wellness, bowling), and while these deals tend to be smaller than gaming transactions, they create more of a ‘flow’ of transactions.”
All of this helps VICI pay a dividend that’s not just reliable, but quite large, too—it currently yields north of 5%. It also enjoys extremely high ratings from the Wall Street community, earning it a spot among our best dividend stocks.
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1. Ellington Financial
— REIT industry: Mortgage
— Market capitalization: $1.7 billion
— Dividend yield: 11.7%
Ellington Financial (EFC) is a mortgage-related real estate investment trust. As previously mentioned, that means elevated risk for several reasons.
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First, the fundamentals of trading mortgage paper instead of operating physical properties come with unique risks. Second, a rising-interest-rate environment could pinch EFC as its borrowing costs rise. And lastly, EFC is also the smallest stock on this list—meaning that unlike multibillion-dollar REITs, it simply doesn’t have the same resources to weather any widespread downturns in the economy.
That said, Ellington is a little bigger than it once was. In December 2024, it completed its merger with fellow mortgage REIT Arlington Asset Investment Corp., which deals in mortgage servicing rights, agency mortgage-backed securities, and credit. The company’s name remains Ellington Financial and the stock still trades as EFC.
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Ellington is a rarity on this list, as it pays a monthly dividend—and a high one at that. And that monthly dividend was actually reduced just a few months after the merger, from 15¢ monthly to 13¢, as it worked to absorb Arlington and as a 2022 acquisition, Longbridge Financial, attempted to return to profitability. Good news on the latter front: Longbridge, a reverse mortgage business, has indeed returned to the black and actually looks attractive as some Baby Boomers choose to remain in their existing homes during retirement.
“We continue to view EFC as a top-tier mREIT, given its platform diversification and inhouse originators,” says B. Riley Securities analyst Timothy D’Agostino (Buy). “Our thesis revolves around: 1) EFC’s reverse mortgage originator, Longbridge, as well as EFC’s other differentiated origination platforms; 2) a dynamic platform allowing EFC to shift capital allocation based on the market environment; 3) continued increased long-term financing, should improve the liability side of the balance sheet.”
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Can You Buy REITs in Funds?
Buying individual REITs like the ones above can be an effective way to tap into the real estate market using publicly traded stocks. But there are also REIT mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) out there that provide diversified ways to invest across the sector in one simple holding.
For instance, the Vanguard Real Estate ETF (VNQ) has almost $34 billion in total assets under management (and that doesn’t include assets under the mutual fund shares). It’s invested in roughly 150 different top REITs right now, and it yields an extremely healthy 3.9%.
REIT ETFs carry their own unique risks, but they can be another effective way to gain exposure to real estate investments in your portfolio and provide consistent retirement income.
Related: The 16 Best ETFs You Can Buy for 2026
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How Else Can You Buy Real Estate?
Typically, if you want to own stock in a real estate company, you have to invest through the public markets. But equity crowdfunding makes it possible for everyday investors to secure a stake in privately held real estate businesses.
Equity crowdfunding platforms typically allow for small investments (read just hundreds or even tens of dollars) in a wide range of businesses. The platform is usually paid through either a monthly fee or by collecting a percentage of the funds raised for the business. And generally speaking, these platforms provide high ease of use compared to many other types of real estate investments.
Related: 7 Best Real Estate Crowdfunding Sites + Platforms
Equity crowdfunding pick: EquityMultiple
Some real estate crowdfunding platforms only allow you to invest in property portfolios. However, some platforms, such as EquityMultiple, also allow you to invest in individual properties—in this case, commercial real estate (CRE).
EquityMultiple carries a minimum $5,000 initial investment and is limited to accredited investors. However, those investors have access to individual commercial real estate deals, funds, and even diversified short-term notes.
For those interested in learning more about EquityMultiple, consider signing up for an account and going through their qualification process.
Related: The 10 Best Dividend ETFs [Get Income + Diversify]
We love exchange-traded funds (ETFs) because they can provide one-click access to hundreds, even thousands of stocks, while charging often minuscule fees.
One way to put that low-cost diversification to work? Collecting dividends. But trying to choose from literally hundreds of income-producing funds could take up a lot more time than you have. So let us help you narrow the field—check out our list of 10 top dividend ETFs.
Related: 10 Best Monthly Dividend Stocks for Frequent, Regular Income
The vast majority of American dividend stocks pay regular, reliable payouts—and they do so at a more frequent clip (quarterly) than dividend stocks in most other countries (typically every six months or year).
Still, if you’ve ever thought to yourself, “it’d sure be nice to collect these dividends more often,” you don’t have to look far. While they’re not terribly common, American exchanges boast dozens of monthly dividend stocks.
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