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Forbes
a day ago
- Business
- Forbes
5 Office REITs For The Great Return To Office
Houston, Texas, USA downtown city park and skyline. 'Programmer.' My wife nailed it as we stepped into the open house, staring into the front room labeled 'home office.' Shoes off, respecting the homeowners still living there. 'They're hoping for a rentback,' explained the realtor. 'The couple has to move out of town for work.' Ah, another casualty of the return-to-office mandate! Back to the Bay Area for these two. They're far from alone. Major cities—Boston, New York, San Francisco—are shaking off five years of downtown rust, preparing for commuters back four or more days each week. Even here in Sacramento, I had to battle morning traffic this week for the first time in more than five years. My drive from dropping off kids just outside the city (at science camp) back into the city (to my office) had me feeling like it was 2019. Which is why we're talking about undervalued 'return to office' REIT dividends up to 14.4% today. Office REITs were left for dead in the shredder. COVID sent whole offices into their homes, and it looked like these landlords were done—until bosses started telling workers to get back to the office! This isn't a free pass to every office space owner. Consider that just last month, Sunbelt office-space owner Piedmont Realty Trust (PDM, NO yield) completely halted its dividend payments for the first time in company history, and CEO Brent Smith said he didn't expect for dividends to return until at least late 2026. (But even then, there's a silver lining for office retailers: While PDM's cash flows were weak, it was preserving cash for tenant buildouts amid a frenzy of leasing activity.) Let's look at five other office REITs with better prospects—and more yields (up to nearly 14%). 5 Office REITs For Dividend Investors Alexander's (ALX, 8.2% yield) has one of the most spartan property rosters you'll ever see: just five properties in the New York City metropolitan area. It's actually managed by the much larger Vornado Realty Trust (VNO), which is important to know because it squeezes annual management fees out of several of those properties and is also entitled to development fees when applicable. ALX, to be honest, has a lot of things going against it. Five properties isn't exactly diversified to start with, but also understand that it has high single-tenant risk: Bloomberg accounted for nearly 60% of Alexander's rental revenue during Q1 2025, up from about 50% in the year-ago quarter. 'No other tenant accounted for more than 10% of our rental revenues,' reads Alexander's first-quarter Form 10-Q. 'If we were to lose Bloomberg as a tenant, or if Bloomberg were to be unable to fulfill its obligations under its lease, it would adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition.' Almost bafflingly, ALX has been one of the most resilient office REITs in the post-pandemic era, boasting about 30% in total returns over the past five years (versus losses for most of its peers) and keeping its dividend intact throughout COVID. Unfortunately, that dividend, while generous, also hasn't grown in a long time. The main reason is coverage issues. In 2023, it paid $18 per share in dividends against $15.80 in funds from operations (FFO) per share. In 2024, it paid the same $18 against an even lower $15.19 in FFO. And ALX paid $4.50 per share in dividends during 2025's first quarter against just $4.06 in FFO. More worrying still: At the start of 2025, the company owed $502 million in debt repayments versus about $340 million in cash holdings. Easterly Government Properties (DEA, 8.1% yield) is a highly specialized office REIT boasting 100 properties, 92 of which are leased out to U.S. government tenant agencies such as Veterans Affairs, the FBI, and the Drug Enforcement Administration, with the remaining handful leased primarily to state or local government tenants or private tenants. Its buildings go beyond traditional cubicle farms, spanning outpatient facilities, warehouses, courthouses, labs, even built-to-purpose properties. Still, if a government REIT sounds exactly like the kind of company that 'DOGE' would drag down, you'd be right. Back in March, I highlighted some REIT studs and duds, and DEA was solidly in the latter camp: Readers who failed to heed that warning are now sitting on a single-digit divvie. Just a couple weeks later, Easterly slashed its dividend by roughly a third, from 26.5 cents per share to 18 cents per share. It also announced a 1-for-2.5 reverse stock split to get its shares back above $10 per share; as of the stock split, that dividend becomes 45 cents per share. Investors at least have a harder decision now than they did before. A massive dividend cut, especially one so recent, is a major strike against Easterly. But the dividend now sits at a much more affordable 60% of core FFO estimates. Unfortunately, despite losing half its value over the past five years, including a double-digit drop in 2025, we're still paying a fair-at-best 13 times 2025 FFO estimates—all while DOGE and government cutbacks continue to cast a shadow over DEA's tenants. We'll find a smaller but safer-looking payout from Highwoods Properties (HIW, 6.4% yield), which owns 26.7 million square feet of office space with more than 95% exposure to Sunbelt markets such as Dallas, Orlando, Atlanta, Nashville and Charlotte. Put differently: HIW is rooted in cities with higher-than-the-national-average population growth, rent growth and office employment growth. It also boasts extremely low leverage compared to the space, and shares are decently valued at 9 times FFO estimates. Like ALX, Highwoods never cut its payout during COVID, but you could argue it should have raised it since then—dividend coverage is extremely generous, with an FFO payout ratio of just 60% based on 2025 estimates. Some readers might not be ready to fully dive into office REITs but still want a taste. That's where hybrid REITs come in. Take American Assets Trust (AAT, 6.7% yield), for instance. It's a modestly sized REIT at just 31 buildings across the Pacific Coast, Hawaii and Texas, but those buildings include 4.1 million square feet of office space, 2.5 million square feet of retail space, 2,302 multifamily units, and 369 hotel suites. Still, office space is the largest chunk of cash net operating income (NOI), at just over half. AAT's dividend was a COVID victim, cut from 30 cents per share to 20 cents in 2020. Dividend growth resumed just two quarters later, though, and the stock was back to 30 cents by the back half of 2021. Better still? The payout has grown in every year since—glacially, but it's the right direction. Those dividends represent just 70% of projected 2025 FFO, and the stock trades at roughly 10 times those estimates. Brandywine Realty Trust (BDN, 14.4% yield) is another hybrid REIT with 64 properties and a similarly thick office concentration, but it's trying to change that—projected NOI based on its current pipeline is expected to be 42% office, 32% life science and 26% residential. It's also extremely focused on two areas: greater Philadelphia (77% of NOI) and Austin, Texas (15%). I mentioned a few months ago that BDN's dividend arrow is pointed in the wrong direction. Part of the problem is that development projects are dragging Brandywine down. Some of its construction has been funded by expensive capital, and its arrangements with partners require Brandywine to recognize full interest and other costs until the projects become profitable. I had hoped Brandywine's latest report would inspire confidence; it did anything but. First-quarter FFO fell below expectations, 'normalized' FFO was off by more than 40% year-over-year, and cash available for distribution (CAD) fell below the company's 15-cent dividend for a third straight quarter. Brett Owens is Chief Investment Strategist for Contrarian Outlook. For more great income ideas, get your free copy his latest special report: How to Live off Huge Monthly Dividends (up to 8.7%) — Practically Forever. Disclosure: none
Focus Malaysia
4 days ago
- Politics
- Focus Malaysia
Next GE is a question of life and death for UMNO in Pahang: Paya Besar MP
PAYA Besar UMNO Division Chief Datuk Mohd Shahar Abdullah has described the upcoming GE16 as a life-and-death battle for UMNO, crucial to ensuring the future of the next generations in Pahang. Speaking at the 30th Paya Besar UMNO Division Meeting at Kolej Kemahiran Tinggi Mara Kuantan on Saturday, he said GE16 is not just about electing representatives but about shaping the state's future direction. 'For us, GE16 is a life-and-death battlefield. It's not just about electing representatives but about determining the future of our children and grandchildren in Pahang,' he said. The Paya Besar MP emphasized that UMNO cannot afford to be negligent, as it would significantly affect the future of the party and the state. 'If we are careless or negligent, we will not only lose power but also the right to determine the fate of our people, our state, and the party we love. 'We protect UMNO today, and UMNO will protect our children tomorrow. If we defend our power today, tomorrow the people will continue to enjoy a just and caring government,' he added. Despite past electoral setbacks, Mohd Shahar said UMNO remains hopeful, noting that in the previous election, out of 24 District Voting Centres (PDM) in the division, UMNO won only six at the state assembly level and 13 at the parliamentary level. He said the division is implementing a 3R strategy—retain, reclaim, and reduce—to strengthen its grassroots, recapture lost strongholds, and ensure victory in GE16. —June 29, 2025 Main image: South China Morning Post
Express Tribune
25-06-2025
- Business
- Express Tribune
Education underfunded
Listen to article The federal education budget has fallen to an all-time low of 0.8% of GDP, reflecting utter disregard for something that should be among every government's top priorities. The number has steadily declined since 2018 — when it was 2% of GDP. That year is significant because it was when the PTI government took office, and despite its promises to improve life for the masses, funding for education saw only nominal increases in real terms, with the actual share of GDP actually contracting. The PDM and PML-N governments criticised the PTI for this, only to do the exact same thing when they came to power. In fact, despite Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's much-publicised "education emergency" declaration last year, the government has actually slashed education expenditure by 29% in the first nine months of FY25, allocating a paltry Rs899.6 billion against Rs1,251.06 billion a year earlier. It is worth noting that the UN has called on all countries to spend between 4% and 6% of GDP on education. This collapse in education funding coincides with a 20% hike in defence spending — the largest increase in a decade — following border clashes with India. While national security is vital, underfunding education will create even more security risks tomorrow. Studies show each additional school year boosts individual earnings by 9% and national productivity exponentially. But it should not be forgotten that the biggest drain on the budget is actually debt servicing, which now accounts for over half of the federal budget, leaving social services, the bureaucracy and the military fighting over the rest. While it is important to keep the debt in check, the most reliable way to actually bring it down in the long term is to build a future where economic growth is guaranteed — such as by having an educated workforce. Unfortunately, our leaders either cannot, or will not, plan that far ahead.
Hans India
24-06-2025
- Business
- Hans India
Fertiliser quality checks stepped up to ensure safe supplies to farmers
Bengaluru: To ensure that organic and bio-fertilisers supplied to farmers meet the required standards, the Department of Agriculture has intensified quality control efforts across Karnataka. Fertiliser inspectors are conducting regular and surprise checks at manufacturing units, godowns, and retail outlets to draw samples, which are then sent to the notified laboratories for testing. According to department officials, these checks are part of the Quality Control Programme under the Fertiliser Control Order (FCO), 1985. The samples are being tested for compliance under Clause 29 of the FCO. There are three government laboratories located in Bengaluru, Dharwad, and Kalaburagi, which test the quality of organic and bio-fertilisers. In the financial year 2024–25, a total of 893 samples were collected and analysed. Among them, 13 samples were found to be non-standard, and necessary action was taken as per FCO regulations. In one recent case, Grow Bhoomi Bio Organic Fertiliser Pvt Ltd in Belagavi, which is licensed to manufacture NPK mixture and organic fertilisers, was inspected. The firm is currently producing Phosphate Rich Organic Manure (PROM) and Potash Derived from Molasses (PDM). These products fall under Schedule IV of the FCO, 1985. Samples of both PROM and PDM were collected by the jurisdictional fertiliser inspector and sent to labs in Dharwad and Belagavi for testing. Results are awaited. If the samples are found to be substandard, the department has said it will take legal action under the FCO, 1985, and the Essential Commodities Act, 1955. In addition, the department is also training farmers on safe practices while purchasing fertilisers, pesticides, and seeds. Officials said regular meetings are also being held with fertiliser dealers at the taluk and district levels, where they are made aware of common violations of the FCO and the penalties under the Essential Commodities Department of Agriculture has urged both farmers and dealers to cooperate in ensuring the quality andsafety of inputs supplied across the state.
Zawya
20-06-2025
- Politics
- Zawya
'Don't Lose This Golden Chance'- President Museveni Advises Ugandans on the Parish Development Model (PDM)
He said he began the fight against poverty in the 1960s and he has been able to come up with various poverty alleviation programs to ensure that his dream is realized. 'Don't lose this chance because it's a big support to you. Wako, who was poor, is now a rich man. He is blessed now with three cows and a milling machine because his family embraced the PDM program. I know that we are all not equal but when you embrace the PDM program you will eradicate poverty in your households,' he said. President Museveni made the remarks today during his PDM assessment tour at Mr. Muwereza Wako 's farm situated at Buyego cell, Buvuma sub-county in Buvuma district. Mr. Wako, a PDM beneficiary, owns three cows and a milling machine. The President, who was pleased to visit Mr. Wako's farm, said that the government has for years been sending resources to the public to curb poverty but in one way or the other some government officials have been mismanaging it. President Museveni however narrated that the government now gives each parish Shs.100m annually and in his next five years' term in office, each parish will have received Shs.500m. He revealed that the first batch which received Shs.1m PDM money each, two years back will return it to their parishes with an interest of Shs.120,000, to give chance to other adults to benefit. The President supported Mr. Wako with Shs.12m to purchase an acre of land at Shs.10m and use the Shs.2m to buy livestock like goats and pigs. In response, Mr. Wako commended the President for initiating the PDM program that has enabled a section of Ugandans to improve their standard of living through wealth creation. He asserted that he was so poor to an extent that he couldn't afford food for his family but currently he is called a rich man. Mr. Wako and his wife Mirembe Eseza together with their eight children live on half an acre of land and according to the farmer, the PDM money has enabled him to add value to his family through wealth creation. He said on 21st June 2023, he received Shs. 1 million PDM cash and after the bank charges, he remained with Shs. 980,000. Mr. Wako noted that using the PDM money, he added some of his savings to buy a bull and a cow which conceived and gave birth to a calf in May 2024. During the same month, he sold a bull at Shs.1m and used it to purchase an old milling machine at Shs.2.5m. Mr. Wako explained that the machine seller allowed him to clear his remaining balance of Shs.1.5m in installments. He asserted that he started using the machine which fetched him money to clear the balance. The PDM beneficiary revealed that the milling machine earns him Shs. 15,000 every day, after deducting Shs. 5,000 for fuel, thus remaining with Shs. 10,000 and he earns a total of 300,000 per month. The dairy cow gives him 3 litres of milk. He sells two litres at Shs.1000 each and earns a total of Shs. 60,000 per month. The cow dung and urine is used as fertilizers in his garden. Distributed by APO Group on behalf of State House Uganda.
