Hello,
I had a similar thread elsewhere and started with the same concerns - I didn't want to pay 0.60% MER for 19 equally balanced REITs so decided to roll my own. This is my list and some of the reasons why I chose each of them. Feel free to comment.
REI.UN - largest, retail + office, 5.35% yield, 0.27 beta, AFFO = 91.55%, Occupancy = 95.60%, Debt = 40.00%
CAR.UN - large, residential, good grown but low yield, -0.18 beta (great!), above metrics are 75.00% 98.70% 44.31%
AX.UN - medium size, diversified, beat up lately due to Alberta but good growth potential, 8.0% yield, metrics: 88.50% 92.00% 51.00%
AAR.UN - medium size, industrial, focused on ecommerce distribution and logistics FedEx is 25% of client base, 5% yield, metrics: 86.60% 95.60% 42.30%
NWH.UN - small, medical buildings and hospitals in 5 countries, good diversification, 7.34% yield, metrics: 93.00% 95.60% 51.50%
SOT.UN - very small, office, great sustainable yield of 9.23% but probably not much growth due to this, metrics: 87.60% 86.40% 59.10%
Equal weight them all 1/6 yeah. Average yield comes to about 6.5%. Used
http://portfoliovisualizer.com/ to compare inner correlations and tried to keep them small. Also wanted to keep the basket with as low correlation to the TSX as possible.
Currently hold 12% of total portfolio in those but 2 of them I haven't purchased yet.
That's all I have. Hope it's useful.
Cheers,
JC