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3 REITs That Pay Up to 10%

Barchart·09/09/2026 06:00:02

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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. The market can still throw curveballs at REITs, such as the potential for the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates by the end of 2026, which would increase these companies' borrowing costs and make their dividends a little less attractive compared to the relative safety of bonds. Thus, 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 three REITs that enjoy high ratings from Wall Street's research community.

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.

The Best REITs to Invest In

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 right now.

The following list should get you pointed in the right direction, however. All three of these leading real estate investment trusts, from my broader list of the best REITs to buy now, offer significant income and the potential for long-term upside.

All REITs listed in order of yield, from lowest to highest.

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Ryman Hospitality Properties

REIT industry: Lodging and hospitality real estate
Market capitalization: $8.3 billion
Dividend yield: 3.9%

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 almost 14,000 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.

"We believe underlying trends remain strong, driven by momentum in forward booking and achieved rates," says Citi's Nick Joseph, who rates the stock at Buy. "While positive trends are supportive to near-term performance, we believe investors are likely to be focused on potential sale of the Entertainment division, and possible redeployment of proceeds"

But Ryman is adding to its portfolio, too. The company in August announced it would buy the 409-acre Grande Lakes Orlando, which includes a 1,010-room JW Marriott and a 582-room Ritz Carlton, which is also managed by Marriott International (MAR).

"RHP’s recent acquisitions include the JW Marriott Hill Country (San Antonio) and the JW Marriott Phoenix Desert Ridge; the acquisition of Grande Lakes is in line with RHP’s recent focus on adding higher-end options to its core-group focus," Joseph adds. "We view the move as a positive for the portfolio given operational synergies in the Orlando market and potential ADR uplift opportunities."

As far as the dividend goes: The company had strung together several years' worth of consecutive dividend increases up until COVID, when the company suspended its 95¢-per-share quarterly payout. That dividend returned in 2022 at a much-reduced 10¢ per share, but quickly ramped up and surpassed its pre-pandemic level. At current levels, the dividend yields almost 4%.

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.

Essential Properties Realty Trust

REIT industry: Retail
Market capitalization: $6.5 billion
Dividend yield: 4.3%

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 2,400 single-tenant properties spanning hundreds of tenants across 48 states. About 77% of the portfolio's cash annualized base rent (ABR) is service-based, and another 14% or so is experience-focused. In fact, despite being a “retail” REIT, only about 3% of ABR comes from true retail—and the lion's share of that is from grocery stores, which have been extremely durable. The remaining sliver of ABR comes from industrial properties. Top industries right now include car washes, medical and dental practices, early childhood education, quick-service shops, and automotive service.

So, 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. The diversification helps.

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"The top 10 tenants represent <20% of 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."

But this isn't just a safety play; Essential Properties can deliver growth, too.

"Essential Properties Realty Trust is one of the fastest-growing net-lease REITs due to its low base and cost of capital spread," say Stifel analysts, who also call the REIT a Buy. "This has resulted in some of the best earnings growth and among the lowest dividend payout ratios in the space."

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 3% hike announced in December 2025, the quarterly payout is about 30% higher than where it was five years ago.

Millrose Properties

REIT industry: Residential real estate sites
Market capitalization: $5.1 billion
Dividend yield: 10.0%

Millrose Properties (MRP) isn't a run-of-the-mill residential REIT. In fact, it's a trailblazer.

Millrose was a part of homebuilder Lennar (LEN) until it was spun off in 2024. It buys and develops residential land, then turns around and sells its finished homesites back to Lennar and other homebuilders via options contracts at set fees.

Because of its relative newness and novelty, MRP doesn't exactly have a crowded coverage base. But the few Wall Street analysts assigned to the company like what they see. That includes Citi's Nick Joseph, who rates the stock at Buy and is warming on the company's landbanking partnership with real estate development company JPI.

"We were initially skeptical of MRP's new multifamily landbanking facility with JPI, as: 1) a large developer would only enter a new facility if it lowered financing costs, enabled new product types, or reduced risk; 2) multifamily construction lending is competitive at lower spreads unless underwriting higher LTVs; and 3) MRP lacks a competitive advantage in underwriting multifamily inputs (e.g. rent levels, cap rates) compared to its real-time for-sale data," he writes. " However, in speaking with large apartment developers, institutional capital focused on multifamily landbanking is scarcer than we assumed, and developer equity costs are likely higher than MRP's option yield—creating an opportunity for MRP to selectively offer permanent financing between traditional debt and equity."

Perhaps most noteworthy is an extremely aggressive dividend. The company kicked off its program in April 2025 with a prorated 38¢ quarterly distribution, which became 69¢ in July. That dividend has since grown in every quarter since; the most recent 77¢ payout comes out to a 10% yield at current prices.

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