Honey Money Concluded that REITs Does Not Work For Him From 2022 Experiment Till Now.

Hi Folks, welcome back to Investment Income For Life. This will be a short post. Interestingly, I came across a Youtube video from local Finance Influencer Chris Honey Money recently on why he sold off all his REITs. Basically, he did a 4-Year Experiment: In 2022, Chris scaled down his Syfe REIT+ portfolio to SGD 1,000 to track its long-term performance. The results were extremely disappointing for him. He asserted that after four years (with all dividends reinvested and management fees deducted), his Syfe REIT portfolio value dropped to SGD 998.70 (a loss of SGD 1.30). Then Chris went on to do a market benchmarking by mentioning that during a similar period, the broader Singapore market (STI) recovered and grew significantly (e.g., +23.5% in 2024 and +28.6% in 2025), whereas S-REITs struggled due to prolonged high interest rates.

BK's Thoughts

I thought it was really strange that Chris mentioned that he ended up with a loss on his Syfe Holdings since 2022. 2022 was actually the year whereby the US Fed did very aggressive rate hike from 0.25% to 4.50% within a year. Therefore, if one had bought REITs in 2022 and before the COVID period of a decade long super low interest rate environment, then it would be blatantly obvious that your SREIT holding will be biting the dust. But if you have been holding REIT for a decade (long term) or topping up or accumulating REITs at that juncture, you will be making great capital gain and also super high distribution yield of 10%+ on cost. You folks can refer to our friend at Investmoolah and his acquisition of United Hampshire US REITs during the downturn in SREIT market prices.

Personally, I can only conclude that Chris's short experiment and result conclusion are very strange indeed as it is too short an experiment. Also, if you were holding on long term to REITs, your dividends distribution would have way covered the decline in the capital value of your REITs at this juncture despite SREIT still being in doldrum mode. Anyway, I still believe that holding REITs is necessary for my own retirement portfolio. 

Ok folks, have a great week ahead and may you all be well and happy always!

United Hampshire US REIT Amazing Q1 2026 Results and 9% Distribution Yield.

Video version of previous posting on United Hampshire US REIT review- Please click here.

United Hampshire US REIT Amazing Q1 2026 Results- Distribution Yield Now Around 9% Per Annum.

United Hampshire US REIT ("UHREIT") reported a strong 1Q 2026, with distributable income rising 10.0% year-on-year to US$6.9 million, driven by higher rents, active leasing and contributions from two newly acquired grocery-anchored properties. Gross revenue increased 8.7% to US$19.7 million, while net property income climbed 12.7% to US$13.2 million. Using FY2025 Distribution Per Unit (DPU) of 4.39 US cents and closing Unit Price (12 May 2026) of US$0.515 per unit, this represents a previous distribution Yield of 8.5%. Since Dover is acquired in 2nd half 2025, a high level normalisation should give about a at least 5% increase for DPU in 2026, that is around an incredulous 9% distribution yield! 

1. Recap of New Properties Driving Increase in Distribution.

UHREIT sold Albany Supermarket for US$23.8 million back in January 2025. Thereafter, it has reinvested those proceeds into higher-yielding investment properties along with debt to supplement the these acquisitions:

1(i) Dover Marketplace-Acquired on 1 August 2025.

Purchase price: US$16.4 million

Funding source: Fully funded by proceeds from the divestment of Albany Supermarket

1(ii) Wallingford Fair Shopping Center- Acquired on 22 January 2026.

Purchase price: US$21.4 million

Funding source: Partially funded by proceeds from the Albany Supermarket divestment, internal cash, and external borrowings.

2. Financial Highlights for Q1 2026

Portfolio fundamentals remained resilient. The grocery and necessity portfolio maintained 97.7% occupancy, weighted average lease expiry extended to 8.0 years, and tenant retention stayed high at 90%. Only 2.0% of leases are due for renewal in 2026, while self-storage occupancy improved to 89.2%.

The balance sheet remains stable, with aggregate leverage at 40.3%, a lower average borrowing cost of 4.91%, and no refinancing requirements until February 2028.

Final Add On

UHREIT Management remains positive on the outlook, citing resilient demand for grocery-anchored retail, limited new supply, and opportunities for further acquisitions and asset enhancements. The 9% distribution yield for 2026 and the high potential for capital appreciation made UHREIT an attractive investment. Personally, given the current good results (finally turn-around after declining financials for past few years), I would have invested additional funds into UHREIT if not for my current holdings which already made up 10% of my total portfolios which represented an extremely high concentration risk.  

United Hampshire US REIT- 12.1% Increase in Distribution in FY2025 and Over 8% Forward Dividend Yield For FY2026.

For long term loyal holders of United Hampshire US REIT ("UH REIT") since IPO and for investors who had accumulated additional units when its price hover around the US$0.40 per unit in June 2024 during the high financing cost period, UH REIT just announced the good news of an impressive 12.1% increase in its distribution for financial year ending 31 December 2025. Let us go through some of the financial analysis, normalised distribution yield and also the distribution notice:

Section 1: Revised Distribution Yield From Increase in Distribution.

For UH REIT, 2nd Half 2025 Net Property Income increased 2.3%. This growth was supported by the commencement of new leases, rental escalation from existing leases, contribution from the newly acquired Dover Marketplace and lower interest rates as well as borrowings.

It resulted in a 12.1% overall increase in distribution per unit relative to the 2nd half of 2024. At 2.30 cents per unit, this is an annualised distribution yield of US$0.046 per unit. As per the announcement date of 20 February 2026, the market traded price was US$0.560 per unit. This implied an annual distribution yield of 8.2% per annum. This is an extremely attractive distribution yield in the SREIT universe given its consistent more than 95% occupancy rate for grocery related retail business since IPO.

Section 2: Substantial Discount to Net Asset Value Per Unit of US$0.73 Per Unit.

As at 31 December 2025, the net asset value per unit of UH REIT stood at US$0.730 per unit. Based on its current market price during announcement date, its market price was US$0.560 per unit. This is a 30% upside at current market price.  

Section 3: Key Dates To Watch Out For Existing Unit-holders.

Unit-holders please take note of the following key dates. Firstly, Ex Dividend Date will be on 27 February 2026 (Friday) while distribution payment date will only be on 30 March 2026 (Monday).

Section 4: Parting Thoughts.

To give some additional background context, UH REIT listed on SGX on 12 March 2020. The IPO subscription price was US$0.80 per unit. On its first day trading date, UH REIT debuted at US$0.72 (S$1.02), which was 10% lower than its IPO price due to market volatility at that time. It is unfortunate that the debut was soured by the COVID crisis with financial results battered by the post COVID high inflationary environment that leads to escalating financing cost as well as 10% decline in strength of USD over this dark period. Nevertheless, the distribution from UH REIT  has recovered strongly over the past year. It fared the best in terms of SREIT with commercial properties in the US. While Manulife US REIT, Prime US REIT and Keppel Pacific Oak US REIT have suspended all or part of their dividend distributions, UH REIT continued to pay out distributions consistently.    

Ok, that's all for today folks! Bye for now!

Retail SREIT With 12.1% Increase in Distribution in FY2025 and Over 8% Forward Dividend Yield For FY2026.

Please refer to video: Retail SREIT With 12.1% Increase in Distribution in FY2025 and Over 8% Forward Dividend Yield For FY2026. 

Review of High Distribution Yield of 8.2%- United Hampshire US REIT After Disappointing Results For FY2024.

Today, I decided to have a look back at United Hampshire US REIT ("UHREIT") which I last reviewed on February 11, 2025- it had been a horrendous bloodbath in terms of its market price over the past few years considering the fact that it debuted at an IPO offered price of US$0.80 per unit on SGX but is tragically now languishing at US$0.51 per unit as at Dec 5, 2025. UHREIT is the 2nd largest holdings in my overall consolidated portfolios. On a macro-economical level, conditions for REITs market have improved drastically relative to a year ago where the raging interest rate environment led to devastating impact on their financial performances. The time maybe ripe for further improvement in its DPU as well as also another 20%-30% capital appreciation. UHREIT has steadily climbed +7.3% in capital appreciation from US$0.475 to US$0.510 as at Dec 4,2025. Adding in dividends of US$0.0414 received in 2025, which is a +8.72% distribution yield on the market price of UHREIT at the beginning of the year. This translates to an impressive total return of +16% return for FY2025. Is things finally turning around for long suffering unit-holders of UHREIT? Let’s take a closer look below:

1.Revitalised DPU Finally For UHREIT.

For the longest time, we are finally starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel- DPU has been on a decreasing trend yearly since its IPO days in late 2020. The post COVID high interest rate era has taken a huge toll on the DPU of UHREIT. The good news here is that the distributions for the 2nd half of 2024, which is paid in March 2025 has improved. Furthermore, the 1st half FY2025 distributions has also continued this drastically improved trend. I will expect further improvements in FY2026 as UHREIT begin to further recover. 

2. Financial Performance of UHREIT For 1st Half FY2025 Relative to !st Half FY2024

Well, this is a little complicated as there are disposal of investment property (Albany Supermarket) during the year hence revenue and net income comparative will not be on an apple to apple and definitely show a decline without further normalisation. Additionally, the fair value gain/loss (as depicted in items circled in blue above) will also skew the net income numbers as these are actually non-cash adjustments. Therefore, we will need to do some mental acrobatics here by using the Net Income Before Tax and Before Fair Value Changes to compute the "normalised" Earnings Per Unit ("EPU").

Normalised EPU Computation To Assess Performance

Interestingly, there is a deterioration in financial performance with EPU dropping by a slight 2.8%. Nevertheless, the Dover Marketplace acquisition in August 2025 is yield accretive and bought at 4.8% below independent valuation. So, 2nd half financial performance should catch up and the differences is not expected to be material. With interest rate coming down, UHREIT will most likely be producing better financial results for FY2026 and generating higher distributions.

3. Leverage Ratio Improvement-Below 40%

UHREIT has come a long way to bringing down its aggregate leverage ratio from over 42% to the current healthier 38.9% as at the latest 3Q 2025 operational updates. Let's keep our fingers crossed that the management of UHREIT will continue to maintain this ratio. 

The good news here is that unlike our 3 US Commercial Office REITs on SGX which imploded shortly after COVID and are all struggling financially with partial or full suspension of dividends payout, UHREIT seems to be the only US REIT that is still paying out most of its distribution and in a much better shape. 

Parting Thoughts

The poignant thing about UHREIT is that it is trading at a substantial 32% discount to its NAV of US$0.74 per unit and offering a high distribution yield of around 8.2%-8.3% based on US$0.51 closing price as at Dec 5, 2025. There is an analyst report by UOB Kay Hian on UHREIT with a price target of US$0.70 per unit which presents a super optimistic view of 37% capital appreciation. Since UHREIT has always been trading at a huge discount to NAV, I will be happy if it goes up by just 20% capital gain and provides a yearly recurring 7%-8% distribution yield to unit-holders.