With REITs, you pretty much pay for what you get in the sense of...

With REITs, you pretty much pay for what you get in the sense of risk and return. The larger players (WDC, SGP) are only down 20% odd on trading levels a year ago. They have less leverage and safer assets.

I have ranked the sector by the biggest one-year and 6-month falls, then had a good look at earnings and divvies. My favourites of the big ones are VPG and GPT, as they are down 80% and 70% respectively, have a forecast p.e of 5 and div yield of 17% for VPG and 12% for GPT. Both are trading at less than half NTA, VPG is the bigger of the discounts.

Amongst the smaller players, am infatuated with Becton. I like its focus on retirement villages, its down 90% in value, has a historic PE of 1.7 and yield of 34%. It is often has positive press in the Financial Review, its gearing is 40% and falling and seems to be prudently selling assets to lowe this further, usually at a good gain to book value. NTA is $1.70, so it is tading at 40% of its value, despite all its recent sales at being greater than book value. It has a great land-bank and good development pipeline and positive in-flows from fund management.

This is what I meant before about buying $1 for fifty cents. The market has decided it doesnt like leverage, doesnt like real estate and doesnt like property trusts. I think the baby has been thrown out with the bath water.

I look at the other sectors in the stock market and cant help but feel that property will be the sector to lead the
economy out of the chaos. It is still relatively "safe", generates solid earnings income and IMO it is by far and above the only truely cheap sector around at the moment.

Sorry, you pushed my favourite subject button! Hope this helps....

This table probably wont produce particularly well but it should show the financial metrics of the main players.

EPS Growth (%) Price/Earnings (x) Dividend Yield (%)
Curr F/cast F/cast Curr F/cast F/cast Curr F/cast F/cast
Yr 1 Yr 2 Yr 1 Yr 2 Yr 1 Yr 2
S&P/ASX 300 17.84 15.24 23.88 12.57 12.27 9.59 3.76 4.76 4.85
Financials 13.46 -6.61 14.97 10.35 11.26 10.07 4.85 7.07 6.93
BEC BEC Becton Property 102.62 -49.21 -1.5 1.7 3.35 3.4 36.92 24.39 24.57
MDT MDT Macquarie DDR Trust 25.29 -49.9 -15 1.75 3.5 4.12 28.57 26.57 16
MIX MIX Mirvac Industrial -7.15 -36.42 -22.35 1.83 2.88 3.71 39.8 34.69 26.94
AEU AEU Australian Education Trust 50.36 -70.59 18.89 2.17 7.39 6.22 20.6 13.53 16.39
GJT GJT Galileo Japan Trust n/a -44.35 3.08 2.53 4.54 4.4 13.39 26.1 27.8
VPG VPG Valad Property 7.22 -33.83 -12.26 3.31 5 5.7 20.89 20.94 15.47
BJT BJT B&B Japan Property Trust -14.24 -43.34 2.24 3.53 6.23 6.09 15.63 16.77 16.65
DXS DXS Dexus Property 12.23 -71.88 4.35 3.67 13.04 12.5 7.53 7.8 8.07
APZ APZ Aspen Group 47.03 -49.37 -2.31 4.02 7.95 8.14 9.27 11.27 11.78
ALZ ALZ Australand Property Group 2.01 -2.18 -14.39 4.54 4.64 5.42 21.29 17.52 9.46
GPT GPT GPT Group 17.11 -39.9 -2.37 4.9 8.15 8.35 16.98 11.63 11.63
FKP FKP FKP 15.74 -34.05 12.31 4.91 7.45 6.64 7.27 7.34 7.98
ABP ABP Abacus -11.93 -32.02 0.69 6.02 8.86 8.8 9.73 10.51 10.82
GMG GMG Goodman Gp 10.78 -10.53 1.76 7.55 8.44 8.29 10.98 11.85 11.95
MCW MCW Macquarie Countrywide -8.94 16.91 -5.33 7.56 6.47 6.83 16.08 15.46 14.64
IIF IIF ING Industrial Fund 12.08 2.64 2.23 7.71 7.51 7.35 12.38 13.31 13.38
SDG SDG Sunland Group 1.05 -0.69 23.08 7.81 7.87 6.39 6 6.22 7.11
CHC CHC Charter Hall 156.77 7.2 15.63 7.96 7.42 6.42 10.99 13.26 15.37
MGR MGR Mirvac Group 3.66 -4.93 -27.19 8.2 8.62 11.85 11.56 11.92 7.25
MLE MLE Macquarie Leisure 10.86 -10.19 8.65 8.64 9.62 8.85 8.55 9.85 10.5
LLC LLC Lend Lease 16.36 8.07 -9.77 8.91 8.24 9.14 8.37 8.38 8.37
CDI CDI Challenger Diversified Property -41.79 22.94 2.44 9.22 7.5 7.32 13.74 13.82 13.98
MOF MOF Macquarie Office -6.56 21.08 0.89 9.68 7.99 7.92 12.51 12.63 11.84
SGP SGP Stockland 19.22 1.58 4.27 10.77 10.6 10.16 9.38 9.48 9.78
IOF IOF ING Office Fund 0.84 -0.56 0 13.24 13.32 13.32 8.11 7.58 7.65
BWP BWP Bunnings Warehouse Prop Trust 2.23 7.01 0.7 13.79 12.89 12.8 7.25 7.81 7.81
CPA CPA Commonwealth Property 0 0.88 2.17 15.08 14.95 14.63 7.24 6.69 6.84
CFX CFX CFS Retail Property Trust 4.5 2.59 4.2 17.67 17.23 16.53 5.66 5.85 6.05
WDC WDC Westfield 37.04 22.61 3.13 20.08 16.38 15.88 6.55 6.55 6.55
BBC BBC Babcock & Brown Communities -69.69 430 1.89 36.5 6.89 6.76 0 17.26 15.62