Office REITs continue to recover

Article Excerpt

Demand for office space continues to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and the shift to remote work. That will help these two REITs maintain their distributions. ALLIED PROPERTIES REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUST $17 is a buy. The REIT (Toronto symbol AP.UN; Cyclical-Growth Dividend Payer Portfolio, Manufacturing sector; Units outstanding: 128.0 million; Market cap: $2.2 billion; Distribution yield: 10.6%; Dividend Sustainability Rating: Above Average; www.alliedreit.com) owns 188 office buildings and nine properties under development. All are in seven urban markets: Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Kitchener, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver. The overall occupancy rate is 87.2%. Allied last raised your monthly distribution with the January 2023 payment by 2.9%. The current annual rate of $1.80 a unit yields a very high 10.6%. In 2024, Allied sold $256 million worth of its less-important properties in Montreal, Toronto, and Ottawa. It expects to sell $170 million worth of non-essential properties in 2025. The REIT also completed $745 million in acquisitions in 2024. Allied’s revenue in the quarter ended December 31, 2024, rose 2.8%,…