Publicly Traded Funds
Explore how publicly traded funds like REITs and ETFs offer accessible real estate investing in Canada without owning physical property.
May 22, 2025
What is a Publicly Traded Fund?
Publicly traded funds are investment vehicles like Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) and Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) that can be bought and sold on public stock exchanges.
Why Do Publicly Traded Funds Matter in Real Estate
In Canadian real estate, publicly traded funds—particularly REITs—offer a way to invest in property markets without owning physical property. These funds pool investor money and invest in portfolios of income-generating assets.
Key benefits include:
- Liquidity: shares can be traded daily on the stock market
- Diversification: exposure to different property types and regions
- Accessibility: lower entry cost compared to buying real estate
- Regular income through dividends
Publicly traded real estate funds may invest in:
- Apartment buildings
- Shopping centres and retail plazas
- Office towers or industrial parks
- Healthcare, storage, or infrastructure assets
Investors should evaluate fund performance, management fees, and underlying assets. While these funds offer passive exposure to real estate, they are still subject to market volatility.
Understanding publicly traded funds gives investors a flexible alternative to direct property ownership with lower barriers to entry.
Example of a Publicly Traded Fund in Action
An investor buys shares in a Canadian REIT that owns commercial properties across Ontario, receiving monthly dividends based on tenant rental income.
Key Takeaways
- Invest in real estate via the stock market.
- Offers diversification and liquidity.
- Includes REITs and ETFs.
- Generates dividend income.
- Subject to market risks like any equity.
Related Terms
- REIT
- ETF
- Dividend Stocks
- Passive Income
- Real Estate Investing
National average resale-price growth and housing-starts growth, smoothed over three months. The comparison illustrates the cycle; it does not establish how much a price change causes construction to change.
Trailing 12-month starts in centres of 50,000 or more remove the usual monthly seasonality. Ownership combines the homeowner and condominium categories; rental is shown separately.
Six-month averages of provincial starts, expressed at annual rates. The smoothing reduces the influence of individual apartment projects.
The same August benchmark compared with two different starting points. Three-month changes are not annualized.
Average sale prices show the difference in purchase costs across markets. They do not measure affordability relative to local incomes or construction costs.
Newfoundland and Labrador remains above its pre-pandemic sales pattern, but August activity was below last year. Historical lines retain their original release vintages.
Average and median describe different aspects of the same month’s transactions. Both are affected by the mix of homes sold.
Category averages compare different homes and locations; the gaps are not estimates of the cost to upgrade an otherwise identical property.
The five categories shown account for 5,000 of the board’s 5,057 sales. The remaining 57 transactions were in other housing categories.
Monthly observations are not seasonally adjusted. Active listings count properties available at month-end; they are not construction inventory.
Average and median prices share one dollar axis. These unadjusted transaction measures do not control for changes in the homes sold.
TRREB’s 416/905 categories compare the apartments sold in each area. The difference does not isolate a location premium for equivalent units.
5680 Oak Street in Vancouver and its surrounding context. (MCMP Architects)
Ground-level renderings of the tower proposed for 5680 Oak Street in Vancouver. (MCMP Architects)
