Finding the best REITs to buy for 2026 requires more than just an understanding of the real estate market broadly.
REITs—short for “real estate investment trusts”—are fundamentally about property. However, the best REIT stocks often specialize in a particular corner of the real estate market, and are impacted by more than just mortgage rates or national real estate trends.
Furthermore, many investors believe the best REIT stocks provide dividend growth over time. That means looking beyond the short-term trends to make the most of long-term income potential.
And identifying high quality is more important than ever. That’s because the real estate sector is far from beloved as we enter 2026; it spent virtually all of 2025 treading water, and a combination of economic concerns and interest-rate uncertainty could continue to hamper REITs in the new year.
Today, let’s talk about the basics of real estate investment trust investing and how to find REIT stocks to buy. Then I’ll highlight seven of the best REITs on the market, as rated by Wall Street’s research community, that deliver yields of between 2x and 10x the broader market.
Disclaimer: This article does not constitute individualized investment advice. Securities, funds, and/or other investments appear for your consideration and not as personalized investment recommendations. Act at your own discretion.
What Are Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs)?
A real estate investment trust, often referred to as a REIT, is a unique class of investment made up of companies that own (and sometimes operate) real estate-related assets.
Breaking down the name “real estate investment trust” is a good way of helping people understand how this business works:
The first two words (“real estate”) describe the business focus. REITs must derive at least 75% of their gross income from real estate-related income, and 75% of their assets must be real estate-related assets. And if you wonder why I keep saying “related,” that’s because REITs don’t always have to own physical properties—they can own real-estate related assets such as mortgages, too.
The last two words, “investment trust,” are important to understanding REIT ownership. There are certain thresholds that set REITs apart from conventional publicly traded company stocks. For instance, they must have at least 100 shareholders, and they can have no more than 50% ownership resting in the hands of five or fewer investors.
But perhaps the most important rule you need to know about real estate investment trusts is that they must pay at least 90% of taxable income to shareholders in the form of dividends each year. This mandate for income explains’ REITs typically above-average dividend yields. And those yields are one of the biggest selling points to investors.
2 Types of REITs to Know
The REIT universe is sometimes divided into two distinct flavors: equity REITs and mortgage REITs.
While they both deal in real estate, they’re two vastly different businesses and pretty dissimilar investments that can sometimes have very disparate reactions to the same outside forces.
In other words: Investors should know the difference between the two.
Equity REITs
“Equity” is shorthand for a few things, among them “ownership,” typically in a financial asset or company. You’ll frequently hear “equities” used as another term for “stocks,” as a company’s stock represents an ownership stake in that business.
Equity REITs, then, are directly invested in real estate assets. They own or manage properties ranging from office buildings to shopping centers to apartment complexes, leasing that space and generating income from the rents. And publicly traded equity REITs allow you to enjoy that exposure through their shares, which you can purchase through any traditional brokerage account.
Mortgage REITs
Mortgage REITs (or mREITs), on the other hand, don’t traffic in real estate properties—instead, they deal with debt.
Mortgage REITs finance real estate, operating less like a traditional REIT and more like a financial firm. This is done by either originating mortgages, or buying and selling those mortgages and related mortgage-backed securities. The business also commonly involves borrowing heavily to then trade all that mortgage paper at scale. An mREIT’s profits, then, tend to revolve around net interest income (NII): the difference between the interest revenue they generate and the financing costs on all their assets.
This fundamentally makes mortgage REITs riskier than equity REITs. After all, the 2008 financial crisis was caused in large part by financial firms borrowing heavily to invest in the debts of third parties. Particularly in the current interest rate environment, where borrowing is getting steadily more expensive all around, that’s a tough spot to be in.
That said, many mREITs offer twice or even thrice the income potential of equity REITs. These dividends might be at risk of evaporating if things go south, but if they hold up, investors will be richly rewarded for looking beyond the conventional players on Wall Street.
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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 in 2026.
The following list should get you pointed in the right direction, however. All seven of these leading real estate investment trusts offer significant income and the potential for long-term upside if things pan out in 2026 and beyond.
All REITs listed in order of yield, from smallest to largest.
Best REIT #1: Ventas
- REIT industry: Medical and senior housing
- Market capitalization: $37.4 billion
- Dividend yield: 2.4%
Ventas (VTR) is one of the market’s largest health care REITs, boasting more than 1,400 properties in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. This includes more than 850 senior housing communities, with the rest spread across outpatient medical, research, hospitals, long-term acute care, in-patient rehabilitation, and skilled-nursing facilities.
In short, Ventas sits at the intersection of a number of “necessary” health care properties.
COVID affected real estate operators of all stripes, though Ventas was among the hardest-hit, with VTR stock losing roughly three-quarters of its value in less than two months as residents fled its senior housing and skilled-nursing facilities. That prompted its push into medical office real estate, which provided some stability. But the demographics that lifted senior housing and nursing operators certainly didn’t disappear, and now those properties are back in the spotlight.
Ventas is also maximizing its senior housing properties by converting many of them from triple-net lease (NNN)—where tenants are responsible for taxes, maintenance, and insurance, and Ventas just cashes a check—to its more actively managed Senior Housing Operating Portfolio (SHOP). These SHOP properties have so far been a significant driver of net operating income (NOI). Indeed, Ventas believes SHOP’s cash NOI will finish 2025 with between 14% and 16% growth, and that guidance is better than it was a few months ago.
“Ventas SHOP assets include independent living, assisted living, and memory care environments, many with high-end amenities which add pricing power,” Argus Research analyst Marie Ferguson (Buy) says. “The shares have the potential to trade on stronger fundamentals and to participate in sector momentum should interest rates decline.”
As mentioned before, Ventas was crushed during COVID, forcing the company to slash its dividend from 79¢ per share to 45¢, where it remained for years. However, in Q1 2025, the company finally delivered positive movement, announcing a 6.7% hike to the payout, to 48¢ per share.
Related: 15 Best High-Yield Investments [Safe Options Right Now]
Best REIT #2: Equinix
- REIT industry: Datacenters
- Market capitalization: $71.5 billion
- Dividend yield: 2.6%
Equinix (EQIX) is an attractive REIT for investors looking for a play on megatrends including cloud computing, big data, and artificial intelligence.
EQIX is the largest global data center and colocation provider for enterprise networks. In other words, Equinix is responsible for the actual server rooms that house all the bits and bytes that power all the content and software we offload to “the cloud” without really considering where the cloud is.
Considering the fact that cloud-based software is now just the normal way of doing business, that creates a massive opportunity for Equinix as one of the largest specialized firms in the space. This digital infrastructure provider boasts almost half a million connections to more than 10,000 customers, with a global reach of 77 metro areas in 36 countries. Those numbers will surely grow, with the company currently working on 58 projects in 34 markets in 24 countries.
“Equinix sits at the epicenter of most of the world’s internet traffic and is exposed to strong secular tailwinds involving hybrid IT and digital content,” says Stifel analyst Erik Rasmussen, who rates the stock at Buy. “We view EQIX as a core holding for both tech-focused and real estate investment portfolios as its business model captures a desirable mix of growth and stable recurring cash flows, which should drive a high single-digit, low-double-digit dividend [compound annual growth rate] for years to come.”
Stifel is among several analysts that remain bullish on Equinix’s prospects in 2026 after a lousy 2025.
“Shares of EQIX have languished, [but] … we view the risk/reward as compelling,” says BMO Capital Markets U.S. Real Estate Analyst Ari Klein, who recently upgraded the stock to Outperform (equivalent of Buy). “While EQIX’s ‘building bigger’ investment cycle is a near-term AFFO [adjusted funds from operations] headwind, bookings momentum, a focus on margin expansion, the pull-forward on development pipeline timelines, and lower rates support upside to 2026 expectations.”
And despite a relatively modest 2.6% yield might imply, Equinix has been downright aggressive in sharing its wealth with EQIX holders. The payout has grown by nearly 180% over the past 10 years … it’s just that the shares have risen even more rapidly. Equinix’s stock is up 155% on a pure price basis in the past decade. Including dividends, shareholders have enjoyed a 210% total return.
Related: 7 Best High-Dividend ETFs for Income-Minded Investors
Best REIT #3: EastGroup Properties
- REIT industry: Industrial
- Market capitalization: $9.6 billion
- Dividend yield: 3.2%
EastGroup Properties (EGP) boasts more than 64 million square feet worth of business distribution and other industrial properties across 12 states, predominantly in the American Sun Belt.
Specifically, EGP has homed in on properties of between 20,000 and 100,000 square feet—within the “shallow bay” (20,000-140,000 square feet) segment of distribution centers, which are often located in urban or suburban areas that are close to consumer markets. This type of property has seen much smaller inventory growth compared to “larger box” centers, but also lower vacancy and availability rates.
“EGP offers earnings and [net asset value] upside from the embedded portfolio [mark-to-market] and continued execution on the development front, which delivers premium yields that are still accretive relative to an elevated cost of capital,” Citi analyst Craig Mailman (Buy) says. “In addition, demand for EGP’s shallow bay industrial product remains strong, and the largely Sun Belt market portfolio is seeing an increased level of national tenants vs. a more regional base previously.”
Growth has been elusive over the past couple of years. However, EastGroup remains one of the highest-quality REITs in the industrial segment, boasting healthy cash-flow growth and very low debt leverage compared to its peers, making it one of the best REITs to buy in 2026 for investors seeking out safer real estate.
EGP’s dividend, meanwhile, has grown for 13 consecutive years, and in 29 of the past 32 years.
Related: 7 High-Quality, High-Yield Dividend Stocks
Best REIT #4: Essential Properties Realty Trust
- REIT industry: Retail
- Market capitalization: $6.2 billion
- Dividend yield: 3.9%
Essential Properties Realty Trust (EPRT) is a retail REIT, which doesn’t exactly have the best of connotations—largely because of the hammering the sector took during COVID, but also because of the longer-term hits that malls and other retail properties have taken from the growth of e-commerce.
But EPRT isn’t that kind of retail REIT.
Essential Properties owns and manages more than 2,250 single-tenant properties spanning more than 600 tenants in 48 states. And despite being a “retail” REIT, only about 3% of the portfolio’s cash annualized base rent (ABR) comes from true retail—more than 75% is service-based, another 15% is experience-focused, and about 5% comes from industrial properties. Top industries right now include car washes, early childhood education, medical and dental, quick-service shops, and automotive service. So 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.
Related: 13 Dividend Kings for Royally Resilient Income
“The top 10 tenants represent <20% of [annualized base rent, or ABR] (below peers), the portfolio includes 350+ total tenants, and no tenant is >3% ABR,” says Truist Managing Director Ki Bin Kim (Buy), who adds that “any potential tenant challenges may be relatively less visible/meaningful” because of its diversified portfolio.
“The top 10 tenants represent [less than] 20% of ABR (below peers), the portfolio includes 350-plus total tenants, and no tenant is greater than 3% of ABR. Any potential tenant challenges may be relatively less visible/meaningful,” says Truist Managing Director Ki Bin Kim (Buy), who also highlights Essential Properties’ “strong balance sheet with sufficient liquidity that can support the growth strategy for the next twelve months.”
This business model has delivered unsurprisingly steady (and at times, surprisingly robust) growth, and 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 2% hike announced in June 2025, the quarterly payout is 25% higher than where it was five years ago.
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Best REIT #5: Ryman Hospitality Properties (RHP)
- REIT industry: Lodging and hospitality real estate
- Market capitalization: $5.9 billion
- Dividend yield: 4.9%
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 more than 12,000 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.
That differentiation is important. Wall Street is largely down on many hotel REITs amid economic lethargy straining both leisure and business demand. Ryman is absolutely exposed to those same pressures—Citi’s Nick Joseph, who rates the stock at Buy, nonetheless cautions that “while longer-term trends appear solid, we believe management commentary around booking patterns and expenses will be important to near-term performance.”
Still, 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 for 2026.
Related: The 10 Best-Rated Dividend Aristocrats Right Now
Best REIT #6: VICI Properties
- REIT industry: Gaming and hospitality
- Market capitalization: $30.2 billion
- Dividend yield: 6.3%
VICI Properties (VICI) specializes in gaming, hospitality, and entertainment properties. While you’re probably most familiar with its Vegas real estate, which includes Caesars Palace Las Vegas, MGM Grand, and the Venetian Resort Las Vegas, VICI actually owns 54 gaming properties and 39 other “experiential” properties—such as golf courses and Bowlero bowling alleys—across roughly two dozen states and Canada.
VICI and other gaming REITs are a way to invest in gambling/gaming with the potential for less volatility—nice to have a lot of the time, but especially important as we head into a 2026 in which Americans’ discretionary spending could remain challenged. That’s because these REITs’ revenues aren’t directly driven by ups and downs in the business; they collect rent. So while a prolonged economic downturn could weigh on operators’ ability to pay their bills, VICI is a bit more insulated from quarter-to-quarter issues.
Indeed, not only does VICI specifically have lease escalators that help ensure steadier growth going forward, but those escalators—at either the rate of inflation (via the consumer price index, or CPI) or 1.7% for non-CPI escalators—are above the industry average.
“We think the company has strong earnings visibility for 2025 (4-5% AFFO growth),” says JPMorgan North American Equity Research (Overweight, equivalent of Buy). “Its investment activity has been more varied as it diversifies into other areas of experiential real estate (i.e., youth sports, golf, wellness, bowling), and while these deals tend to be smaller than gaming transactions, they create more of a ‘flow’ of transactions.”
All of this helps VICI pay a dividend that’s not just reliable, but quite large, too—it currently yields north of 5%. It also enjoys extremely high ratings from the Wall Street community, earning it a spot among our best dividend stocks.
Related: The 8 Best Dividend ETFs [Get Income + Diversify]
Best REIT #7: Ellington Financial
- REIT industry: Mortgage
- Market capitalization: $1.5 billion
- Dividend yield: 11.5%
Ellington Financial (EFC) is a mortgage-related real estate investment trust. As previously mentioned, that means elevated risk for several reasons.
First, the fundamentals of trading mortgage paper instead of operating physical properties come with unique risks. Second, a rising-interest-rate environment could pinch EFC as its borrowing costs rise. And lastly, EFC is also the smallest stock on this list—meaning that unlike multibillion-dollar REITs, it simply doesn’t have the same resources to weather any widespread downturns in the economy.
That said, Ellington is a little bigger than it once was. In December 2024, it completed its merger with fellow mortgage REIT Arlington Asset Investment Corp., which deals in mortgage servicing rights, agency mortgage-backed securities, and credit. The company’s name remains Ellington Financial and the stock still trades as EFC.
Ellington is a rarity on this list, as it pays a monthly dividend—and a high one at that. And that monthly dividend was actually reduced just a few months after the merger, from 15¢ monthly to 13¢, as it worked to absorb Arlington and as a 2022 acquisition, Longbridge Financial, attempted to return to profitability. Good news on the latter front: Longbridge, a reverse mortgage business, has indeed returned to the black and actually looks attractive as some Baby Boomers choose to remain in their existing homes during retirement.
“We continue to view EFC as a top-tier mREIT, given its platform diversification and inhouse originators,” says B. Riley Securities analyst Timothy D’Agostino (Buy). “Our thesis revolves around: 1) EFC’s reverse mortgage originator, Longbridge, as well as EFC’s other differentiated origination platforms; 2) a dynamic platform allowing EFC to shift capital allocation based on the market environment; 3) continued increased long-term financing, should improve the liability side of the balance sheet.”
Related: The 10 Best Vanguard Funds to Buy
REITs: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Can you buy REITs in funds?
Buying individual REITs like the ones above can be an effective way to tap into the real estate market using publicly traded stocks. But there are also REIT mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) out there that provide diversified ways to invest across the sector in one simple holding.
For instance, the Vanguard Real Estate ETF (VNQ) has almost $34 billion in total assets under management (and that doesn’t include assets under the mutual fund shares). It’s invested in roughly 150 different top REITs right now, and it yields an extremely healthy 3.9%.
REIT ETFs carry their own unique risks, but they can be another effective way to gain exposure to real estate investments in your portfolio and provide consistent retirement income.
How else can you buy real estate?
Typically, if you want to own stock in a real estate company, you have to invest through the public markets. But equity crowdfunding makes it possible for everyday investors to secure a stake in privately held real estate businesses.
Equity crowdfunding platforms typically allow for small investments (read just hundreds or even tens of dollars) in a wide range of businesses. The platform is usually paid through either a monthly fee or by collecting a percentage of the funds raised for the business. And generally speaking, these platforms provide high ease of use compared to many other types of real estate investments.
Equity crowdfunding pick: EquityMultiple
- Available: Sign up here
Some real estate crowdfunding platforms only allow you to invest in property portfolios. However, some platforms, such as EquityMultiple, also allow you to invest in individual properties—in this case, commercial real estate (CRE).
EquityMultiple carries a minimum $5,000 initial investment and is limited to accredited investors. However, those investors have access to individual commercial real estate deals, funds, and even diversified short-term notes.
For those interested in learning more about EquityMultiple, consider signing up for an account and going through their qualification process.
