Matthew Read on AIRE: “While Glenstone’s opposition and significant shareholding in AIRE makes it harder for AEWU to complete a deal, this does not make Glenstone’s offer attractive. As AIRE’s board point out, once the expected fourth interim dividend is taken into account, the effective value falls to 70p, which is a sizeable discount to NAV and offering little premium for control. At this stage, we think AIRE shareholders should sit tight and see whether AEWU converts its interest into a firm offer. Its proposed all-share terms currently imply a meaningfully higher value and would allow investors to retain exposure to a liquid, income-producing REIT with a strong track record. Of course, there is no guarantee that an offer will emerge, but shareholders lose little by waiting for greater clarity and we’re inclined to agree with AIRE’s board that Glenstone’s bid is coming at too wide a discount.”
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A second income from regional offices might be the most topical investment idea in Britain right now. Andy Burnham walks into Downing Street and the North of England is making the headlines.
If power really is heading out of London, one small-cap real estate investment trust (REIT) might be positioned directly in its path. It’s Regional REIT (LSE:RGL).
Should you buy Regional REIT shares today?
The portfolio
The company owns a £543m portfolio of offices deliberately located outside the M25. Its properties are located in places like Manchester, Glasgow, Leeds, and Birmingham.
The strategy is unorthodox – most property investors hunt for areas and industries where demand is strong. Regional REIT focuses on opportunities where supply is weak.
Industrial distribution centres are popular, but the problem is that everyone and their dog seems to be building them. By contrast, almost no new office space is being developed in some regional cities.
That makes quality assets highly valuable, even with modest demand. And there’s a chance a Burnham premiership could make that side of the equation even more favourable.
The UK now has a Prime Minister focused on devolution. If that shifts jobs and departments into regional cities, growing demand could be met with constrained supply.
I’m not saying it’s on the same scale as artificial intelligence (AI) driving memory prices off the charts. But the principle is the same and that could be powerful for rent prices.
The maths
Regional REIT targets an 8p per share dividend for 2026. At today’s 102p, that’s a 7.8% yield.
Investment
Annual second income at 7.8%
£5,000
£390
£10,000
£780
£20,000
£1,560
With an investment like this, investors need to think strategically. A £500 dividend allowance disappears quickly with high yields.
A higher-rate taxpayer loses 33.75% of anything over the first £500. Over time, that can be a lot – especially if the dividend goes up.
Inside a Stocks and Shares ISA, the investor keeps the full £780. And with something like Regional REIT, that matters more than it does for most stocks.
REITs have to distribute 90% of their taxable income. This doesn’t leave much for reinvestment, so the dividend is usually the bulk of the returns.
That means avoiding dividend tax is key – there’s not much coming from elsewhere, so retaining as much as possible is crucial.
Please note that tax treatment depends on the individual circumstances of each client and may be subject to change in future. The content in this article is provided for information purposes only. It is not intended to be, neither does it constitute, any form of tax advice. Readers are responsible for carrying out their own due diligence and for obtaining professional advice before making any investment decisions.
The risk
In terms of risks, it’s best to focus on the dividend. The board has already reset it once — from a 10p target to 8p this year.
That was to fund refurbishments. And while those are investments in the business, a decade of quarterly payouts shows income is a priority but not a promise.
There are some reassuring details. Net loan-to-value is down to 39.4%, rent collection reached 98.5% in Q1, and £40.3m of cash sits on the balance sheet.
That’s all very positive. But if occupancy slips while hybrid working lingers, another cut is possible.
Buying shares in Regional REIT as part of a diversified portfolio keeps a dividend disappointment from derailing the whole plan. And I think it’s certainly worth considering right now.
If you buy at 99p and the dividend is 8p, the yield equals 8%
Next dividend payment October.
Currently trades at a discount to NAV of 50%, so you are buying assets for 50p in the pound so there could be an opportunity, long term, to make a capital gain.
Aberdeen Asian Income Fund Ltd ex-dividend date Bankers Investment Trust PLC ex-dividend date BlackRock Income & Growth Investment Trust PLC ex-dividend date City of London Investment Trust PLC ex-dividend date CQS Natural Resources Growth & Income PLC ex-dividend date Foresight Solar Fund Ltd ex-dividend date Golden Prospect Precious Metals Ltd ex-dividend date International Biotechnology Trust PLC ex-dividend date Invesco Global Equity Income Trust PLC ex-dividend date JPMorgan Claverhouse Investment Trust PLC ex-dividend date JPMorgan India Growth & Income PLC ex-dividend date Sequoia Economic Infrastructure Income Fund Ltd ex-dividend date Supermarket Income REIT PLC ex-dividend date
This 6.5% Dividend Has Grown 76% (It’s Still Cheap)
Michael Foster, Investment Strategist Updated: July 20, 2026
At my CEF Insider service, we started 2026 bullish. We still are.
Why? AI, sure. But the real answer is simpler: The data simply tells us that the US economy is stronger than most people think.
Sometimes, admittedly, the data is weaker than we’d like, but no real disasters have appeared. So we’ve kept on our bullish course, continuously adding high-yielding closed-end funds (CEFs) to our portfolio, while taking profits on our holdings from time to time.
With that in mind, and with the halfway point of the year only just behind us, I wanted to bring up one fund that’s performed very well for us indeed, and continues to look strong as we roll into the back half of 2026 (and beyond).
I’m talking about the John Hancock Financial Opportunities Fund (BTO), which was our first addition to the CEF Insider portfolio this year, in the January issue of the service, which came out on the 23rd of that month.
BTO has a lot going for it, especially for income investors like us: Its 6.5% yield is more than six times what the typical S&P 500 index fund pays. And that payout is growing, up an eye-popping 76% in the last decade.
A 6.5% dividend that grows! I know I don’t have to tell you how rare that is. And we haven’t sacrificed performance here, either, as the fund (in orange below) has been outperforming the go-to S&P 500 index fund, the State Street SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY), in purple, since our buy.
BTO Outruns 2 Key Benchmarks
I know that’s a small margin, but BTO holds another key edge: Much of that return came to us as dividend income. But you’ll see that I’ve also included the finance-sector benchmark State StreetFinancial Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLF), in blue above. That’s a fairer comparison for BTO than SPY is. And as you can see, our CEF has blown its ETF “cousin” out of the water.
You’d expect investors to reward that kind of run, and yet BTO’s discount to net asset value (NAV, or the value of its underlying portfolio) stands at 4.1% as I write this. That’s a bigger discount than it was at the start of the year, despite BTO’s strong return.
BTO’s NAV-Driven Discount
There are two ways a CEF’s discount can shrink: The “bad” way is when its assets fall in value faster than the market can price in those losses. This is what happened to BTO (and many other CEFs) when the Iran conflict broke out.
The “good” way is when its assets rise quicker than the market can price in those gains. This is also what’s happened to BTO, since its NAV returns (in orange below) have consistently been ahead of its market price–based returns since we bought in late January.
BTO’s Fundamentals Have Led Its Market Price–Based Gains Higher
The NAV gains are important because they show us that management is earning a real return by holding assets that are rising in value.
They’re also important because they directly fund a CEF’s dividend. And here we see that BTO’s dividend is well-covered just by the 12.1% total return on NAV the fund has generated in just the last few months. This also opens the door to further payout growth.
Now let’s talk about the fund’s portfolio, which largely consists of regional banks, with Old National Bancorp (ONB), Pinnacle Financial Partners (PNFP), and Popular Inc. (BPOP) as top positions.
Regional banks are doing well because the US economy is doing well, and the decline in inflation we’ve seen since 2022 (even though the consumer price index remains historically high) is helping regional banks earn more profits from their banking activities.
That’s benefiting BTO, but the fund is also profiting from another trend that’s boosting national banks, as well. With more stock trading and lower credit losses from bad loans, big banks are posting “blockbuster profits as equities trading booms,” as the Financial Times puts it.
The regional banks in BTO’s portfolio also lend to companies, and those loans are safer due to a decline in credit losses, which boosts BTO’s NAV. Additionally, these banks’ wealth-management arms are also doing well thanks to the strong stock market.
All of this is why BTO has performed so well in the last few months. But why is this CEF also beating the national banks, who more directly benefit from more equity trading and lower credit losses? This chart explains it:
BTO’s Short-Term Underperformance Is an Oddity …
For the three years prior to our buy, BTO (in purple above) saw its NAV underperform XLF (in orange) as market demand for big-bank stocks exceeded demand for local-bank stocks. But this is not normal.
… as the Fund Crushes Big Banks in the Long Run
Over the long term, BTO’s NAV (again in purple above) has outperformed XLF (in orange), so when XLF beats BTO in the short term, that’s a sign BTO is a buy, provided conditions favor banks as a whole. That’s why we bought BTO in January.
So where does all this leave us? While BTO’s discount still intrigues us, the fund is just a hair above my $39.00 buy-up-to price at the moment. While we still love BTO, this just means we’re looking to other funds in our portfolio when we have new money to invest.
We are keeping a close eye on this one, though—and happily collecting its payout. We’ll add more (and build on our BTO income stream in the process) on any dips.
When you took the full 25pc from both of your plans in 2016, you crystallised the entire value of those pensions and fixed the amount of tax-free cash available from them. You can withdraw income from the drawdown funds whenever you need it, but those withdrawals will normally be subject to income tax.
Your third pension pot is fully uncrystallised, meaning you’ll be able to take further tax-free cash from it. This will generally be limited to the lower of 25pc of the funds being accessed at that time and your remaining lump sum allowance
Money Helper
If you have uncrystallised pension pots either 100% or part crystallised any earned dividends add pro rata to you uncrystallised pension pot, so if you intend to retire on your own Snowball it could pay to leave part of your fund uncrystallised.
A Stormy Market? We’re Interested. Two 9%+ Dividends to Buy
Brett Owens, Chief Investment Strategist Updated: July 14, 2026
This market is in a three-way “tug-of-war”—and it’s set up some sweet deals on our favorite 9%+ dividends.
The Fed. The White House. Iran. A peep from any of the above and stocks soar (or tank).
But we contrarians can see through the short-term fog here.
We’re buying this volatility, in part because we’re playing the long game on AI, and the likelihood it’ll cap wage growth and inflation in the long run (more on that below).
But in the here and now, we need to play it smart—and zero in on payers that cushion our downside so we can collect their rich payouts in peace. I’ve got two closed-end funds (CEFs) that do just that—and throw off huge 9%+ yields, too.
Plus, these two funds help us avoid the mistake most investors are making now.
1 Click to 9X the Payouts Your Friends Are Booking
That mistake? When markets come under pressure, many investors look to a “plain vanilla” index fund, like the State Street SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY), to take advantage.
The problem? SPY’s current yield is … 1%. One percent!
Want a $50,000 yearly income stream from SPY? Hope you’re prepared to invest around $5 million.
It’s too bad because SPY holders can easily grab dividends 9X bigger when they go just a bit past ETFs, to CEFs. Our first one holds the stocks in SPY, but instead of a sad 1%, it pays a 9.1% dividend that gets safer when markets turn stormy.
Swap the “Y” in “SPY” for “XX”—and Unlock a 9.1% Payout
That CEF is SPY’s high-yielding “clone,” the Nuveen S&P 500 Dynamic Overwrite Fund (SPXX).
The tickers are similar because like SPY, SPXX holds the stocks in the S&P 500, such as Apple (AAPL), Microsoft (MSFT) and Visa (V). But instead of SPY’s 1% dividend, you get SPXX’s sweet 9.1%.
Why the difference? SPXX sells call options. These give the buyer the right to buy SPXX’s stocks at a fixed future date and price. That generates extra income because SPXX keeps the “premiums” these buyers pay, no matter how these trades play out. The value of these options also rises with volatility.
SPXX then uses this cash to fund our payouts.
This strategy can cap upside in a rising market, as some of SPXX’s holdings get sold. But it also gives us most of our return as dividends, which is one way it cushions volatility.
SPXX has lagged SPY this year, with a 7.4% total return based on market price (in purple below), compared to 9.9% for the ETF. You’d expect that, as the bulls ran through the first half of ’26, despite the many whipsaws we’ve seen along the way.
But over that time, something curious happened: The performance of the fund’s portfolio (that is, its net asset value, or NAV), which strips out sentiment, has more or less matched SPY, returning 9.8% year-to-date (in orange below).
NAV Pops, Price Trails … and a Buy Window Opens
That gap has teed up a 9.1% discount to NAV on SPXX (which by coincidence matches the fund’s yield), much wider than the SPXX’s five-year average of 3.9%.
And if you look at the right side of the chart below, you’ll see that SPXX’s discount is starting to narrow again. That’s a sign that investors are placing more value on SPXX’s options strategy and are starting to buy in as volatility picks up:
SPXX’s Cheap (for Now) Valuation
This setup—a below-average discount that’s starting to narrow—is generally a smart time to buy a CEF. And while we wait for SPXX’s markdown to close, this “SPY clone” will pay us 9X what the original does.
Swap Your Bond ETFs for This 10%-Paying CEF
This opportunity isn’t only coming our way in stocks. It’s handing us deals in bonds, too. That’s because the herd is wrong on the direction of interest rates in the long run.
We already touched on AI, which provides a sweeping level of automation to white-collar work that is highly deflationary.
In the 1990s, the Internet acted as a similar “deflator” on prices. The move from snail mail to email and from fax machines to web browsers made businesses wildly more efficient, which kept a lid on consumer prices—and a floor under bond prices. They rallied throughout the entire decade.
Oil? Despite the latest tit-for-tat, prices are still well below their 2026 highs. And this conflict will end. Neither side can afford any other outcome. That’ll lead to a further drop in the price of the goo, and another gut-punch to inflation.
But the crowd doesn’t fully grasp any of this yet, so bonds are hated. That’s our cue.
One thing you do not want to do at a time like this is pick up a corporate-bond ETF like the SPDR Bloomberg High-Yield Bond ETF (JNK), which pays 6.6%. That’s not bad, but it pales in comparison to the payout of a corporate-bond CEF like the 10%-yielding DoubleLine Yield Opportunities Fund (DLY).
Not only is DLY’s yield 50% larger than that of the index fund, but it comes our way monthly, with the odd special dividend thrown in:
When it comes to performance, there’s no comparison. DLY is run by Jeffrey Gundlach, the so-called “Bond God,” who’s as connected as they come. DLY launched in February 2020, as the COVID dumpster fire was starting to rage. That let it buy the dips while the world went into lockdown.
And since bonds started to get up off the mat in late 2022, DLY (in purple below) has routed JNK, as typically happens with CEFs, which are actively managed.
The “Bond God” Grabs an Extra Jump in the Rebound
Even so, we can grab DLY at a 7.3% discount today, wider than its five-year average of 5.1%. That’s also cheaper than JNK, which, as an ETF, never gives us a discount.
Sequoia Economic Infrastructure Income (SEQI) 17 July 2026
SEQI’s dividends are being held in a world of otherwise falling cash and bond yields.
Sequoia Economic Infrastructure Income (SEQI) generates a very high yield (8.2% at the time of writing) by lending money to infrastructure projects, from roads, railways and ports, through to data centres, renewable power generation and broadband networks. Its loans are heavily backed by real assets, with an average loan-to-value of 68%, and made to borrowers which typically receive steady and contractual cashflows, spread across a broad variety of sectors and geographies to provide diversification.
Over the last year the discount has steadily marched in, but remains in double digits at 10.1%. Despite cuts to base rates in the UK, US and EU over the past few years, SEQI has held its dividend target for 2027 where it has been since 2023. With the board committed to a significant buyback programme, and with the prospect for rates to fall further in this cycle, we think yield and the Discount are increasingly attractive.
In order to broaden the geographical diversification and take advantage of the growing opportunities in private debt in Asia-Pacific, the board is proposing to amend the investment policy to allow up to 30% to be invested in that region and 10% in other jurisdictions (including Canada and Latin America), so long as the country of origin is in the OECD or has an investment grade credit rating. There is no intention to alter the current defensive, cautious approach to lending, or make a dramatic near-term re-allocation to Asia, but the change should bring SEQI’s policy into line with the rapidly developing market for opportunities in developed jurisdictions such as Japan, Korea or Singapore (in addition to Australia and New Zealand, where SEQI has previously invested), in which major infrastructure private equity managers are making investments in sectors such as digitalisation and energy transition.
Analyst’s View
SEQI looks to us to have a clear path to a sustained discount narrowing. While there was some uncertainty around the path for interest rates when the Iran conflict broke out, it now seems like rate cutting cycles will be resumed. As yields on cash and government bonds come down, and with spreads in the corporate debt market looking narrow, we would expect SEQI’s yield to look ever more attractive to income-seeking investors.
While the term ‘private debt’ is being bandied about negatively in the press at the moment (especially regarding US credit funds’ exposure to sectors such as software), as we discuss below, we think SEQI is a very different proposition to the US funds that have run into trouble, and there is no more natural read-across than there would be in the equity space from, for example, a geared, small-cap tech fund to a large-cap defensive infrastructure fund. Since the GFC, private credit has become a diverse and well-established asset class, with SEQI’s planned expansion into Asia-Pacific markets highlighting its continued growth. Just because some private debt funds have run into trouble, doesn’t mean the space should be rejected, any more than poor returns in some equity funds mean equities should be rejected.
We think the diversification in the portfolio, along with the high backing by real assets and regular turnover of the investments (with a short average life of less than 3.5 years) all speak to the prudent, low volatility source of this very high yield. There is no free lunch in investing, and for SEQI stock-specific risk has to be borne in mind, as does the potential for single loans to run into trouble, but the track record of the management team is encouraging in handling these situations.
Bull
High dividend yield from ungeared portfolio with relatively low credit risk
Strong technical picture with withdrawal of banks from the sector and few competing funds
Specialist team with many years of experience in this space pre-SEQI launch
Bear
Falling interest rates will create a challenge to maintain the yield
Unfamiliar asset class which is less transparent to the average investor
Sentiment to the shares may be negatively affected by private debt problems in the US, although we think there is little read-across
