# REITs - Your current portfolio percentage %



## avrex (Nov 14, 2010)

Time for another one of my polls. 
I'm always curious about how others structure their asset allocations.

REITs are a different animal. 
They're tempting because of their juicy payouts. But, they cannot be considered fixed income. Their risk is higher and that risk is more in line with equities. However, REITs are not highly correlated to equities, which also make them a good vehicle for diversification.

For those of you who own secondary properties, for investment/income purposes, I'm assuming that your REIT allocation is minimal, as you already have significant allocation to real estate. So my poll here is more directed to investors who don't own property, except what is over their heads.

Ok, back to the poll question.

*What percentage of your investment portfolio is REITs? *

That is your overall investment portfolio (pension, RRSP, TFSA, non-registered) and don't include your personal real estate. Don't make it a percentage of your fixed income or equity allocations. What is the percentage of your total investment portfolio. thanks.


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## avrex (Nov 14, 2010)

I have* 6% *REITs

4.5%. Canadian. iShares S&P/TSX Capped REIT Index Fund (XRE)
1.5%. US. Vanguard REIT ETF (VNQ)

I don't own any XIC, but I just noticed that S&P/TSX Capped Composite Index Fund (XIC) holds 1.74% in REITs. So, some of you may have some REITs that you didn't realize.


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## KaeJS (Sep 28, 2010)

*6.48%* REITs

All I own is RioCan, REI.UN


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## Argonaut (Dec 7, 2010)

Approx. *10%*, all RioCan.


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## Sherlock (Apr 18, 2010)

I recently bought a lot of REI.UN (I own no other REITs) so it's now about 22% of my portfolio. This is not my target allocation and I intend to not add any more to it (other than the DRIPing) for a while. I think I'd be happy with it somewhere between 5 and 10% of my portfolio.


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## Oilers82 (Jan 17, 2011)

also all RioCan. 10%.


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## sensfan15 (Jul 13, 2011)

I don't have any real estate exposure in my portfolio. Only equities and bonds. Although I do intend to add some REIT's at some point. What is a common allocation to REIT's in the average portfolio if there is no brick and mortar RE?


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## gibor365 (Apr 1, 2011)

I own about 4-5% REIT.
XRE, ZRE (about 1/3 of those 2 ETFs takes REI) and PMZ.... and have some small portion through XIC


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## slacker (Mar 8, 2010)

9% XRE, considering switching over to REI.UN


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## Dmoney (Apr 28, 2011)

A question of my own: Beyond the fact that it's the largest and most visible Canadian REIT, why does everyone own only RioCan?

There are a number of other REITs that have done exceptionally well and some are just as stable. You can't argue with REI.UN's results historically, relative to the overall equity market, but like any market cap leader, it's going to get harder and harder for it to double.


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## phrenk (Mar 14, 2011)

Approximately 40% is in whiterock reit. As i don't have a house right now, and have some money in cash / fixed income(15%), i'm pretty comfortable with the allocation.


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## larry81 (Nov 22, 2010)

Less than 5% in XRE (in TFSA)


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## stephenheath (Apr 3, 2009)

50% at the moment, which is higher than my planned allocation of 25%, but I'll be getting it back down there by growing the rest of the portfolio. I had the good luck to decide to sell XRE and buy the stocks directly right when REITS were out of favour and they just zoomed up faster than anything else in my portfolio.


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## Ihatetaxes (May 5, 2010)

5% RioCan


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## CanadianCapitalist (Mar 31, 2009)

5.41% in RioCan. Target is 5% but deviation isn't large enough to warrant trimming down.


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## Ethan (Aug 8, 2010)

8.07% all in NPR.un.

I'm way overexposed to real estate as I own a house and 2% of a joint venture that owns a parking lot in downtown Regina. If I include the equity in my house and the JV, 80.5% of my investments are in real estate. I don't see this coming down either as I'm paying off the mortgage faster than I'm contributing to my TFSA and RRSP. Due to my desire to be debt free by age 40, and the high price of real estate, I don't see any way to own a house and not have the majority of my portfolio in real estate for many years.


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## Cal (Jun 17, 2009)

Dmoney said:


> A question of my own: Beyond the fact that it's the largest and most visible Canadian REIT, why does everyone own only RioCan?.


I find Rio Can to be the most easily visible to see first hand who the tenants are, and what vacancies may be. I see their properties every time I go to one of the 2 local Walmarts, or visit friends who have a condo above a Loblaws. They have properties everywhere, I will generally look when I am at a larger retail plaza just to see who manages the property.


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## gibor365 (Apr 1, 2011)

Cal said:


> I find Rio Can to be the most easily visible to see first hand who the tenants are, and what vacancies may be. I see their properties every time I go to one of the 2 local Walmarts, or visit friends who have a condo above a Loblaws. They have properties everywhere, I will generally look when I am at a larger retail plaza just to see who manages the property.


How can you know who manages the properties at plazas? Close to my place, there is a huge new plaza that gets expanded on constant basis (401 & W. Churchill). Was wondering who manages it...


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## andrewf (Mar 1, 2010)

My target allocation is 7.5% Canadian REITs (excluding REITs in the broad index) and 7.5% US REITs. I sold my XRE position a few weeks ago to lower my equity exposure, at a nice gain. I have RWR for my US exposure and will be selling that most likely tomorrow, also for a decent gain over the past year. I have a feeling that we're going to see a plunge in the market this fall.


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## bloschuk (Jul 20, 2011)

10.10% zre


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## Sampson (Apr 3, 2009)

Our family portfolio target is 5% - we are very very close to that.

My wife's portfolio holds only XRE, I hold HR REIT and Boardwalk. We also own a rental, but I'm comfortable with the level of exposure to real estate, and we don't really add much to it these days, just rebalancing.


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## mesaana14 (Apr 4, 2009)

Currently 15% in XRE and VNQ. I do not currently own a home or other real estate.


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## Eder (Feb 16, 2011)

Yikes I'm glad this thread was here...made me check and found I'm over 15%...I own Homberg, Killiam, First Capital Realty, RioCan, and H&R Real Estate.


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## zoya (Mar 20, 2011)

10% NLY and ZRE


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## Dmoney (Apr 28, 2011)

Cal said:


> I find Rio Can to be the most easily visible to see first hand who the tenants are, and what vacancies may be. I see their properties every time I go to one of the 2 local Walmarts, or visit friends who have a condo above a Loblaws. They have properties everywhere, I will generally look when I am at a larger retail plaza just to see who manages the property.


Agreed, I mean unless you work in an office building owned by a REIT or live in an apartment building owned by a residential REIT, the only visibility is in retail REITs. 

As of the beginning of July I began working for an analyst in the real estate sector and it's extremely interesting to see who owns certain properties, the buildings they are buying/selling/developing, the ins and outs of the industry etc.

Can't believe how much I'm learning and how quickly, and I am really interested in applying some of it to my own real estate investments in the medium term. 

But for now I'm just absorbing as much as humanly possible.


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## jamesbe (May 8, 2010)

I bought a bunch or REI.UN. And D.UN, both have netted me awesome returns lately and the dividends are consistent and high.

D.UN lists the buildings they own on their website.

Not sure of my total allocation, but it's 33% of my tfsa


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## KaeJS (Sep 28, 2010)

gibor said:


> How can you know who manages the properties at plazas? Close to my place, there is a huge new plaza that gets expanded on constant basis (401 & W. Churchill). Was wondering who manages it...


I live just a few minutes from there. 

I'm surprised you haven't seen me Street Racing...


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## ddkay (Nov 20, 2010)

What about industrial REITs like AAR.UN? Is industrial RE the least transparent of all?

PS are there any Canadian property managers focused on Brazil office space right now? I hear it's smart to invest in that area but I'm not sure how to go about it.


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## HaroldCrump (Jun 10, 2009)

ddkay said:


> What about industrial REITs like AAR.UN? Is industrial RE the least transparent of all?


I am a unit holder of Pirate (AAR), albeit a small position.
Why do you consider them least transparent?
Their website as well as annual reports are pretty comprehensive.
They appear to be reporting their properties, margins, mortgage rates, occupancy, lease durations, etc. faithfully in their reports.
Many of the properties are in and around the GTA, therefore, it is rather easy for someone to drive around and inspect the general condition of the properties, if one feels compelled to, just to make sure they are not pulling a Sino-Forest manouvre on investors 



> PS are there any Canadian property managers focused on Brazil office space right now? I hear it's smart to invest in that area but I'm not sure how to go about it.


I don't know of any Canadian listed pure REITs focused on Brazil.
The only Canadian REIT with a pure international agenda is Dundee International (DI), recently started trading on the TSX.
However, I believe Brookfield Properties has some exposure to Latin America - check out their portfolio to confirm if they have properties in Brazil.

The other option may be to consider US-listed REITs, since there are more and in number, larger and more diversified.
If you find one, please do let me know.


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## HaroldCrump (Jun 10, 2009)

gibor said:


> How can you know who manages the properties at plazas? Close to my place, there is a huge new plaza that gets expanded on constant basis (401 & W. Churchill). Was wondering who manages it...


Are you interested in who _owns_ it or who _manages_ it?
Very few property management companies are publicly listed.
Anyhow, it should be rather easy to find out.
Most large shopping areas or strip malls have the property owner's name listed on the business directory.
All the buildings or units should have a notice/certificate from the property management company posted within the premisis.
If not, just ask the tenant business for a copy of the latest inspection report.
You will see the names of both the owners as well as the property management firm.


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## fatcat (Nov 11, 2009)

about 4% in xre ...

want to up it to about 6% and trying to decide if i want to switch to riocan to save some mer


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## Dmoney (Apr 28, 2011)

ddkay said:


> What about industrial REITs like AAR.UN? Is industrial RE the least transparent of all?
> 
> PS are there any Canadian property managers focused on Brazil office space right now? I hear it's smart to invest in that area but I'm not sure how to go about it.


It's not that they aren't transparent, it's just that Pure Industrial is the only Canadian pure play industrial REIT. They're also not very big so they're not as well known. 

As for transparency and Sino-Forest comparisons, the issue with Sino isn't that the forests aren't there, the issue is that they don't (allegedly) own the forests that are there. That and a whole whack of other accounting discrepencies.

I like to think that there is more solid verification in place regarding whether or not the REITs actually own the buildings they list as owning.


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## DanFo (Apr 9, 2011)

I had a position in melcor developments...MRD on tsx..It was the best pick i have chosen in my early investing....got in just over $5 and sold just below $15 a year and a half later with decent dividends in between..right now i have no real estate in my portfolio but my portfolio is not very substantial... I'm still learning


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## bigcake (Apr 3, 2009)

~6%


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## Abha (Jun 26, 2011)

I've recently taken a pretty sizable postion in CIM.

Much like my started HPQ position, I think there's too much pessism surrounding the name.

It's a subsidiary of NLY which is generally considered the darling of the industry.

*It's very risky so please don't follow me into this one without understanding what they invest in.*


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## gibor365 (Apr 1, 2011)

KaeJS said:


> I live just a few minutes from there.
> 
> I'm surprised you haven't seen me Street Racing...


I've heard you


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## larry81 (Nov 22, 2010)

Speaking about REIT...

Now that ZRE was released more than 1y ago, it is worth to do a small, short term return comparison between ZRE/XRE

1y

XRE +11.46%
ZRE +4.79%


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## Toronto.gal (Jan 8, 2010)

Abha said:


> CIM....*It's very risky so please don't follow me into this one without understanding what they invest in.*


You can say that again!

Yield	= 17.16%. This can't be right.


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## bloschuk (Jul 20, 2011)

larry81 said:


> Speaking about REIT...
> 
> Now that ZRE was released more than 1y ago, it is worth to do a small, short term return comparison between ZRE/XRE
> 
> ...


Mostly because REI +22%?


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## larry81 (Nov 22, 2010)

bloschuk said:


> Mostly because REI +22%?


absolutely


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## Yudansha (May 14, 2011)

10% allocation, CUF/Cominar all stuffed in my wife's TFSA.


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