Canadian REITs are Bargains Now Too

The S&P/TSX Composite Index is down 600 points this Monday morning. Time to go shopping. But what to get? I was nodding my head in agreement when Canadian Capitalist wrote in his Jan. 9 post that Real Estate Investment Trusts [REITs] were looking quite cheap. With today’s sell-off, they would seem to be even bigger bargains.

The yield on the iShares Canadian REIT Sector Index exchange trade fund [ETF] as of noon sits at 7.2% (based on iShares data), about 350 basis points (i.e. 3.5%) above the yield on 10-year Government of Canada bonds. That kind of premium hasn’t been seen since the late 1990s.

Also many REITs are trading below net asset value: in a research note released about two weeks ago, Scotia Capital analyst Himalaya Jain said the REITs he covered were priced an average 8.5% below net asset value. As of Monday, they are probably more than 10% below.

Comments

[ras:]

What is the symbol of this Canadian REIT

2008 Jan 22 12:05 PM

[User 129873:]

Is there an ETF for Canadian REITs

2008 Jan 22 12:29 PM

[Larry MacDo...:]

The ETF, as mentioned in the article, is called, iShares Canadian REIT Sector Index exchange trade fund [ETF]. Symbol is xre on the Toronto Stock Exchnange. In Yahoo Finance, just type xre.to

2008 Jan 22 06:31 PM

[User 41525:]

hwat is teh symbol for this and why isnn't it given? Ridiculous

2008 Jan 22 10:10 PM