Must reads on real-estate investing

Investing in real estate can offer many advantages, including portfolio diversification, regular income, and protection from market volatility.

Use these articles to refine and expand your understanding of how real estate can help clients meet their investment objectives.

Real (estate) income: A haven from volatility

Clients want returns, yet fixed-income isn’t delivering, and many are frightened of equities. Many advisors, as a result, are turning to real estate to round out portfolios.

Back to the land: Investing in real estate

Real estate can do more than keep the rain off your client. It can form a solid foundation in an income portfolio, shelter your client from inflation, and smooth volatility.

Seeking yield? Think real estate

As an alternative asset class, which represents a third of the world’s wealth, real estate generally—and commercial real estate specifically—provides an inflation hedge and reliable cash flow that’s helped it earn a permanent position alongside traditional asset classes in sophisticated investment portfolios.

The pros of private real estate

Private real estate can be suitable for clients looking to offset the volatility of stock markets. But as an asset class, it’s not without risk, and it is governed by a complex set of rules.

Forecast: Commercial real estate fundamentals are strong

Clients looking for yield would do well to consider options in commercial real-estate investing – everything from REITs to private ventures that produce income streams from a portfolio of tenanted buildings.

REITs offer long-term stability

Real estate investment trusts (REITs) are an investment anomaly, especially for anyone accustomed to following corporate earnings: REITs generate poor return on equity. On the flipside, tax treatment of the trust distributions can be useful, particularly for those nearing the income threshold where Old Age Security (OAS) and other income-tested benefits start getting clawed back.

Staff

The staff of Advisor.ca have been covering news for financial advisors since 1998.