Earning 9% yield as a Singapore Dividend Investor is Possible

Singapore's REIT sector remains one of the highest-yielding developed markets globally. Two counters currently sit near or above the 9% mark - United Hampshire US REIT and NTT DC REIT. Both payouts are backed by contracted rental income, not payout engineering.

United Hampshire US REIT (SGX: ODBU) — 9.3% Dividend Yield

• Business: owns a diversified portfolio of grocery-anchored and necessity-based retail properties, plus modern, climate-controlled self-storage facilities, across the US East Coast The company's objectives are to provide unitholders with regular and stable distributions and to achieve long-term growth in distribution per unit and net asset value per unit while maintaining an appropriate capital structure 
• Grocery and necessity occupancy at 97.7%; WALE extended to 8.0 years- long income visibility
• Distributable income grew 10% year-on-year in Q1 2026
• Gearing at 41.1%; no refinancing required until 2028 - buffer against near-term rate volatility
• Dividend per share rose from $0.0406 in 2024 to $0.0439 in 2025, with the trailing 12-month yield sitting at 9.3% now on share price of 47 US cents
• Growth driver: onboarding rent from a new shopping mall extension, plus built-in rental escalations, support further DPU growth

NTT DC REIT (SGX: NTDU) — 8.7% Forward Yield at 92 US Cents

• Business: a diversified portfolio of stabilised, income-producing data centre real estate, sponsored by NTT Global Data Centers - the third-largest data centre provider globally excluding China, with six carrier-neutral, Tier III-equivalent assets across California, Northern Virginia, Vienna and Singapore market reseach data)
• Annualising the second-half run-rate gives a DPU of 7.81 US cents - the basis for a high-8% forward yield at current prices
• Portfolio occupancy by IT load at 95.1%, with committed occupancy at 98.5%.Gearing well under the 50% MAS ceiling - headroom for accretive, debt-funded acquisition

Both REITs keep gearing comfortably under MAS's 50% leverage ceiling, and both show positive rental reversions alongside multi-year lease profiles - income growth funding the distribution, not capital erosion. The yield gap against "risk-free" benchmarks is stark: Singapore's 10-year government bond yields around 2.3%, while even the US 30-year Treasury, near 5.3%, still falls short of both counters. Add to this that Singapore levies no dividend tax on REIT distributions, and the quoted yield is the yield received.

There are other REITs at attractive price points such as Sasseur and Elite UK REIT. I am surprised why many investors have avoided the Singapore's REIT space