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Investment Q&A

Not investment advice or solicitation to buy/sell securities. Do your own due diligence and/or consult an advisor.

Q: Good afternoon,

I am looking to add a REIT ETF to my portfolio (ZRE is my preferred), and am wondering on a historical bases if REITS right now are trading at a cheap/expensive valuation? Your website has the PE ratio at 7.8x and PB ration at 1.08x- that seems cheap? How does that compare with historical norms? Only wondering as ZRE seems to be trading not too far from it's all-time high, reached a month or two ago.

Would you expect reits to drop as interest rates rise over the coming months/years?

Thanks for the answer.
Read Answer Asked by Jeff on November 09, 2018
Q: The majority of my portfolio is invested in the TSX 60 through XIU. I am working on diversifying my portfolio and thought I would start off with the Real Estate sector and am considering ZRE.

Would you have any issues about selling about $13,000 of XIU to buy ZRE and achieve a 5% allocation in the Real Estate sector?

Also, I noticed that ZRE was dropped from the Model Income Portfolio in July 2017. Do you have any issues with ZRE specifically?
Read Answer Asked by Ray on October 22, 2018
Q: I currently don't have any REIT exposure and think I should focus on a broad ETF for more safety and diversification as opposed to some of the smaller cap REIT's I have previously held although they do have much higher yields I am concerned about the risk exposure. Would this be a good time to start a position in ZRE and/or do you have another suggestion?
Thanks,
Craig
Read Answer Asked by Craig on March 20, 2018
Q: I am retired living on dividend income. I am interested in ZWU to increase my dividend income with its yield of 6.30%.
However, I noticed that it's cash distribution has been decreasing since Jan 2017. How is its cash distribution determined? With rising interest rates, will it's cash distribution continue to decrease? What income etf yielding over 4.5% would you recommend in this market? What percent position would you recommend for income ETFs?
Read Answer Asked by Curtis on January 29, 2018
Q: I've recently sold my ZRE position and am looking for some suggestions on what to consider purchasing with the extra funds on the fixed income side of my portfolio. My equity portfolio is balanced; I am about 8 years from retirement, and am conservative in my approach. I am about 30% in laddered GICs, 5% individual bonds, 3% CPD and 5% in cash. I don't have any bond ETFs (and am concerned about the principal in a rising interest rate environment). What to do with the extra cash? More CPD? Or an international REIT? Or a bond ETF, Canadian or International? Or something else?
Read Answer Asked by Brenda on July 24, 2017
Q: I currently hold ZRE for income. If I were to replace it with 4-5 individual REITS, which ones should I pick, in addition to CSH.UN? Would ZRE or the portfolio of individual REITS be more appropriate for a long-term hold with equal consideration to distribution yield and safety of the distribution? Thank you.
Read Answer Asked by Walter on July 07, 2017
Q: Hi 5i,
Just a comment on Nino’s question and your answer about the choice between paying up for a REIT ETF like ZRE/XRE versus holding 8-12 individual REITs. My choice has been the latter and I have been happy with it. Your answer suggested that rebalancing 12 holdings annually would cost $120 at $10 a pop. My experience has been that the reality is much less than that. Because the REITs tend to move as a group more than their individual movements relative to the group, in holding 8-12 decent quality REITs I haven’t had to do more than 2 or 3 rebalancing transactions in any given year. Except for a couple of extraordinary years my REITs have really been low maintenance holdings. Cheers!
Read Answer Asked by Lance on June 13, 2017
Q: My wife and I, retirees, are considering adding a real estate ETF to our portfolio, to hold in TFSAs. You commented that ZRE has an equal weighting in REITS and is more diversified than XRE (that has a 30% weighting in RioCan and H&R). ZRE has a slightly higher distribution % that appeals. My question is on safety of capital. I perceive Rio Can and H&R to be high quality REITs versus say an Artis or Cominar that have a higher weighting in XRE. Which of the two ETFs would you consider safer, or is it a coin toss between the two? Thank you for your comments
Read Answer Asked by Edward on May 17, 2017
Q: REITS

My question concerns the viability at all of having REITS in an income portfolio. A Reit does not pay tax at the corporate level as long as their distribute the income to unit holders. Consequently the dividend tax credit does not apply.

Is a REIT therefore like a bond issued by a real estate company with the added tie in to the real estate market valuations ?

Would an income investor not be better off to simply buy a preferred stock from a real estate company that offers an attractive yield?

Thanks

Paul
Read Answer Asked by paul on December 05, 2016
Q: I own ZRE for my real estate exposure, and I note that you hold ZRE in your income portfolio. Would it not be preferable to hold 2-3 actual REITS and skip the MER of 0.61? Do you think this is significantly riskier than just holding ZRE? If I were to switch from ZRE to individual REITs, how many should I switch into, and which ones would you recommend? I am looking to hold longterm. Thank you.
Read Answer Asked by Walter on November 23, 2016
Q: I wanted a quick opinion on the nature of these two ETF's, does ZPR hedge ZRE with interest rates? What I mean is that if interest rates rise ZPR should rise and ZRE should decline and vice versa? Looking long term the interest rate effect will balance out with growth of the companies within ZRE and ZPR should be higher with higher payouts as the preferreds reset?
Read Answer Asked by Nino on November 18, 2016
Q: My question is about REITs in general. When I hear of management disposing of non-core investment properties I usually cringe as I feel like the buying and selling is just churning and move from one thing to the next while pay themselves finders fees and all the 3rd party fees for buying and selling. Why can't REITs have a strategy to buy and hold or is this a too simple a strategy in practice?
Read Answer Asked by Eugene on November 04, 2016
Q: Hello 5i team,

Which ETF is best suited for a long term hold (30 yrs) in a TFSA that will be DRIPPED and contributed to annually. I like the equal weight positions of ZRE but with a higher MER of .61% over the long term it seems the fee's could really start corroding my capital. VRE is the cheapest but also has the smallest yield and is market cap weighted. Is it possible BMO could lower these fee's in the future to stay competitive? I would eventually like to draw income from the holding.

Always appreciate the you insights
Read Answer Asked by Keith on October 13, 2016
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