US data-center REITs, taken apart: the healthiest coverage in the REIT world, at a 2.1–2.8% yield — it is a growth stock, so do not buy it for cash flow
Composite-board score: 5.0 · Where it is strong: Stability & rule of law, Hands-off degree · methodology
The exact opposite of farmland (entry No. 70): Equinix and Digital Realty's problem is not that dividends might fail, but that dividends were never the point. The figures are filing-grade: Equinix's FY2025 AFFO per share was $38.33 (+9%) against dividends paid of $18.76 — an AFFO payout ratio of just 48.9%, with the dividend raised another 10% in February 2026 (the 11th consecutive annual increase) and 2027–29 guidance for dividend growth tracking AFFO growth of 9–12% a year; the yield is about 2.1%. Digital Realty paid $4.88 per share (unchanged since 2022) on AFFO per share of $6.55, a 74.5% payout ratio (note: its Q2 2026 AFFO includes a one-off net promote of about $0.52 per share — strip it, to about $1.94 for the quarter, before reading its coverage); the yield is about 2.8%. After the 30% withholding Singapore readers face (no treaty), the in-hand figures are about 1.5% and 2.0% — far from the cash-flow board's threshold. Verdict: below-bar explainer (a species label, not a quality judgment): data centers are among this era's best real-estate growth stories, but their return shape is 'low dividend plus AFFO compounding', and buying them on a cash-flow ruler means holding the right asset with the wrong species of expectation. The AI capex race pushing sector leverage up is the growth story's new variable — track leverage, not the dividend rate, if you hold them.
In short: four lines first
Listed shares, from any amount; positioned as a growth holding
2.1–2.8%（US data-center REIT dividend yields (gross, filing basis)）
Very hands-off (listed route)
This entry is itself the species statement: at 1.5–2.0% in hand, it fails on the cash-flow dimension — a classification conclusion that quarterly results do not change (unless dividend policy turns to high payout).
The numbers that matter
Why we think it makes money
It demonstrates this site's species discipline: a low yield does not mean a bad asset — condemning EQIX at 2.1% and blessing LAND at 8% are the same mistake (reading one line). The cash-flow board's honesty includes admitting what it does not collect.
Coverage reads in reverse here: a 48.9% payout ratio is a dividend-growth runway (guidance already promises 9–12% dividend growth) — in a growth asset, a low payout is ammunition, not stinginess.
The one-off stripping discipline (DLR's promote): when one-off gains leak into AFFO, coverage gets flattered — this site applies the same knife here as to InvIT return of capital: strip first, then compare.
How to actually get in
- This page offers no cash-flow purchase route: both names are NASDAQ/NYSE listed and buyable at any amount, but positioned as growth/total-return holdings; if held, the evaluation frame is AFFO growth, leverage and dividend-growth guidance — not the dividend yield.
What it costs, what it earns
Entry amount: Listed shares, from any amount; positioned as a growth holding
How much work for you: Very hands-off (listed route)
- 30% dividend withholding (no US–Singapore treaty): on a low-dividend asset the withholding takes the small part; multiple volatility is the large part.
- High valuation multiples' rate sensitivity: data-center REIT prices are far more elastic to long rates than their dividends are stable.
Basis: this site uses full-cost net returns only — income minus vacancy, management, maintenance, taxes and insurance, then financing interest, with entry costs in the denominator. See the methodology。
Identity & tax
Status (residency / citizenship)
This asset does not count toward the channel This asset leads to no status
Threshold: EB-5 乡村 TEA 800,000 美元起
在美国买物业或买生意本身不产生任何身份：EB-5 是独立的移民投资通道（且本站只讲项目机制、不指向具体项目）；普通房产、REIT 与小生意都不计入。另注意：绿卡 = 全球征税，身份与税务在本站的美国条目里永远成对出现。
Source: 美国移民局（USCIS）EB-5 项目页；Visa Bulletin
Tax (investor level)
外国房东的租金收入属美国来源 ECI：可选择按净额计税，否则按总租金 30% 预提；退出受 FIRPTA 约束。
- 净租赁租金对外国房东一般构成与美国贸易或业务有效关联的收入（ECI）：作出净额计税选择后按累进税率就净租金纳税并申报；不作选择则按总租金 30% 预提。州税另计。
- 出售美国不动产权益适用 FIRPTA：买方预提、卖方按资本利得申报，多退少补。
- 经营路线另有实体、雇佣与销售税问题，且非居民业主一般不能使用 SBA 贷款——本条目的外国可投路线以净租赁物业为限。
Double-tax treaties: 美国与新加坡没有全面所得税协定：新加坡居民的美国来源租金与股息预提无协定减免（股息 30%）；有协定国居民按各自协定。
Source: 美国国税局（IRS）FIRPTA 与 ECI 指引
This section is general information only — not immigration or tax advice. Program rules change frequently; before acting, rely on the official texts and a licensed adviser.
Risks: what could go wrong
What we have not verified yet
The following key figures have not yet been verified; the reason is noted for each item.
- Dividend yields are on October 2026 prices: recompute at citation time as prices move.
- The quarterly attribution of DLR's one-off promote follows the company's supplementary filings.
FAQ
- Dividends growing 10% a year — does compounding not fix everything?
- That is exactly its correct holding logic — the 'low start, high growth' dividend-compounding shape, a different cash-flow species from high-start rent collection. This site files it under explainers not to demote it but to classify it: the Top 100 cash-flow board compares money arriving today; if this site ever opens a growth board, this name is in the first batch. Buy it having claimed your board first — do not wait for growth's returns with cash flow's patience.
- Why is this site kinder to its 2% than to farmland's 8%?
- Because the honesty runs in opposite directions: EQIX's 2.1% is printed plainly (48.9% coverage, growth guidance on record), while LAND's 8% is structural (142.5% coverage, sustained by asset sales and borrowing). This site's ranking was never a yield ranking — it ranks 'are the numbers believable, and is the cash sustainable?'. A truthful 2% outranks a fabricated 8%.
- AI is booming — won't data-center rents only rise?
- Demand is real and supply is racing too: sector-wide construction and power-access constraints set the pace at which rents are actually realised, and individual markets have overbuilt before. And rent growth benefits AFFO and the share price, not the dividend yield — holders should track pre-leasing and leverage, not the distribution table.
Related opportunities
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