3 world-class dividend shares to consider for passive income!

Searching for the best dividend shares to buy for a large and growing long-term passive income? Here are three of my favourites.

Posted by

Royston Wild

Published 25 May

When investing, your capital is at risk. The value of your investments can go down as well as up and you may get back less than you put in.

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The London stock market’s a great place to find high-quality companies for passive income. The FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 are packed with shares with deep balance sheets, market-leading positions, and a strong commitment to making shareholder distributions.

This often makes them ideal stocks for investors seeking a large and growing second income over time. With this in mind, here are three world-class dividend shares I think are worth serious consideration.

Property hero

As a real estate investment trust (REIT), Primary Health Properties (LSE:PHP) receives tasty breaks on corporation taxes. And in exchange, it must pay at least 90% of profits from its rental operations out in the form of dividends.

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.

This doesn’t necessarily make REITs dependable income shares. There’s always a risk that earnings can underwhelm if a trust’s properties become empty or if rent collection issues arise.

Primary Health’s vulnerable to such issues, although its focus on the defensive medical property sector greatly reduces such threats. It’s why the FTSE 250 company has raised annual dividends every year since the late 1990s.

City analysts are expecting this proud record to continue over the medium term, too. And so the trust’s 7% dividend yield for this year rises to 7.5% by 2027.

City slicker

City of London Investment Trust‘s (LSE:CTY) history of unbroken annual dividend growth stretches back even further.

The trust — which focuses on shares listed on the London Stock Exchange — has raised yearly cash rewards for a staggering 58 years. It’s committed to holding cash during good years to pay out when downturns come along, offering a smooth return over time.

With exposure to almost 80 companies spanning different sectors, City of London’s well equipped to weather weakness among one or two holdings. What’s more, around 60% of its investments are in large-cap firms worth £5bn and above, providing extra resilience.

The trust’s forward dividend yield currently sits at 4.5%. That beats the corresponding average for both FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 shares by around a full percentage point.

While it carries greater regional risk than trusts holding global shares, it remains a top dividend stock to consider.

9.4% dividend yield

For my money, Legal & General (LSE:LGEN) is the best FTSE 100 dividend share that money can buy. And so it’s the largest single holding in my own Self-Invested Personal Pension (SIPP).

Factoring out a brief freeze during the pandemic, dvidends here have risen every year since 2009. And over that period, the size of the payouts have blown the large-cap average out of the water.

It’s a trend City analysts expect to continue, meaning a huge 9% dividend yield for 2025 eventually rises to 9.4% by 2027.

Put simply, Legal & General is a cash-generating powerhouse, giving it the financial strength to consistently pay large dividends. With its Solvency II ratio rising to 232% as of December 2024, the company has a strong buffer to support payout forecasts, even if weak consumer spending damages earnings.

Supported by structural growth across its product suite, I expect Legal & General to remain a top passive income stock for my portfolio.

If you are considering buying PHP for your snowball you need to factor in the outcome of their ongoing bid for Assura.

The UK markets are closed today, but the Snowball will have earned £82 before they re-open tomorrow.

One problem with Compound Interest it takes time to make noticeable growth.

An good example would be the thread Snowball, where if you could double your income stream in seven years instead of ten, you could start to re-invest

7 years 14k

14 years 28k

21 years 56k

yep, an interest rate of 56% on seed capital, no guarantees though.

As your intention is to live off the dividend stream when you retire, you would have no inclination to kill the Golden Goose that lays the Golden Eggs so you would have no interest in the value of your portfolio in 21 years time.

If you had 100k of your hard earned you might not wish to take the risk of a strategy new to you. Those who have a modest amount to invest but can add new funds on a regular basis may be more willing to take the chance. If you are still undecided look at the compound growth of house prices.

Using data from Nationwide Building Society, the average UK house price has risen from £1,884 in1953 to a staggering £270,867 in the 1st quarter of 2025.

I’ve just earned £1,104 of passive income in 2 weeks, thanks to blue-chip UK dividend shares

Story by Harvey Jones

I’m a late convert to the joys of passive income. In my early days as an investor, I mostly focused on growth. I didn’t know what I was missing.

The last month has been a rewarding one, with a string of dividend stocks in my self-invested personal pension (SIPP) dishing out their half-yearly payouts. And they’ve been in a generous mood.

On 9 May, M&G (LSE: MNG) kicked things off by paying me a chunky £458. That was the biggest of the lot, and unsurprisingly so, given that it has the single highest yield on the FTSE 100 at 9.31%.

M&G is a brilliant dividend stock

That’s what attracted me to the wealth manager in the first place. But as ever with a supersized yield like this one, it’s important to check whether it’s sustainable.

Yields are calculated by dividing the dividend per share by the share price. So when a stock price falls but the dividend stays the same, the yield rises. A really high yield can therefore signal trouble. I don’t think that’s the case with M&G.

Its shares are up a modest 8.6% over the last year, and 77% over five years. That latter number flatters it slightly, as it’s measured from the 2020 pandemic lows, when every stock was on the floor.

Risks and rewards

I’m happy to take the risk to get a higher return. I’ll mitigate it by holding a spread of different stocks, which I plan to keep for the long term. That helps me ride out short-term volatility.

As it turned out, 9 May was a red-letter day as FTSE 100 housebuilder Taylor Wimpey paid me £165. It’s another ultra-high-yielder, offering 8.04% on a trailing basis. No savings account can match that.

On 14 May, FTSE 250 insurer Just Group chipped in £45. All contributions welcome, even modest ones. Given the Just share price is up 38% in 12 months, and 75% since I bought it in November 2023, I’m not complaining.

Lloyds Banking Group picked up the pace by paying me £207 on 20 May, and insurer Phoenix Group Holdings kindly sent me £229 the day after.

Compound growth

In total, I’ve received £1,104 of passive income in a fortnight. I haven’t spent a penny of it. Instead, I’ve reinvested the lot straight back into the same stocks, which means I may earn even more dividends next year.

The fun is over for now but I should enjoy another income spree in the autumn, when the next set of dividends land. I’ll plough those straight back into my SIPP, to help my pension compound and grow over the years. Then when I finally retire, I’ll draw them as income, to top up my State Pension. With luck, I’ll be getting a lot more by then.

The proof of the pudding is in the eating. Below is the journey of the Snowball to date.

The Snowball was started with a seed capital of 100k and the first dividend was earned on the 25/11/22.

Dividends to date all year end.

2022 £1,609.21

2023 £9,422.59

2024 £10,796.00

The actual amount of dividends varied as some companies paid a special dividend which isn’t repeatable.

The plan copied below was to increase the Snowball by compound growth of 7% per year.

The snowball effect in investing refers to the power of compounding, where small investments grow exponentially over time. This concept is central to long-term wealth building, and Warren Buffett himself has famously used it to amass his fortune. As the Snowball rolls along the Snowball gathers more mass and continues to grow in size.

How It Works:

1. Reinvesting Profits – When you reinvest dividends or returns, your investment base grows, leading to even larger future returns.
2. Compounding Interest – Earnings generate more earnings, creating a cycle of exponential growth.
3. Consistent Contributions – Regularly adding to your investments accelerates the snowball effect.

Example:

Imagine you invest in dividend-paying stocks. Over time, as dividends are reinvested, you acquire more shares, increasing your future dividend payouts. This cycle continues, leading to massive wealth accumulation.

Chat GPT

The plan.

Year End Dividends

2023/£7,000

2024/£7,490

2025/£8,014

2026/£8,575

2027/£9,175

2028/£9,817

The current projection for 2025 is £10,000 because the yields on most REIT’s and Renewables were above 7% for the period above. Note that most REIT’s have corrected in value and as the price rises the yield falls. Also remember most Investment Trusts try to increase their dividends by inflation or above.

The Snowball is well ahead of the time line with the current expected dividend equal to the year end of 2028.

The fcast for next year could be increased to £10,700 with a target of £11,000 but early days for that.

Current earned dividends £3,246.00

Expected dividends by the end of the halfway point for the year £1,552.00

Total £4,798.00

The dividend from VPC of £1,933.00 is not a repeatable dividend so is not included in the figure above but part of it may be used to ensure the Snowball reaches its target for the year of 10k.

Buying yield and running yield.

The Snowball bought AGR for the ‘secure’ yield (buying yield). As the price fell 42p the yield rose, div 3.36p buying yield 8%. Bought a couple days before the xd date 06/03/25 @ 41.39p for the yield and the plan was to hold for the long term and to re-invest the dividends.

AGR received a bid from KKR and the price rose 46.48p , the running yield fell to 7%, so the profit was booked, you can see the total profit is made up of trading gains and dividends received. If you receive a bid it’s mainly down to luck but sometimes it’s better to be lucky than to be clever.

PHP have made a rival bid for AGR and if successful the Snowball would look to buy for the portfolio, maybe.

If you trade, you will need to book some profits to balance out any clunkers in your portfolio.

Remember, as the price rises the yield falls (running yield), although you still receive the yield at your buying price.

Remember if you are wanting to buy, a falling share price increases the yield, although you have to DYOR to decided how secure the dividend is.