Investors who are looking to add to their Stocks and Shares ISAs before next month’s deadline may want to consider the following two dividend stocks. Each carries a dividend yield that comfortably beats the 3.8% average for FTSE 100 shares.
The PRS REIT
Residential property stocks may be some of the safest out there. Even if Britain’s economy remains in the doldrums, people will still continue to pay their rents. Real estate investment trust The PRS REIT‘s (LSE:PRSR) 99% rent collection rate in 2023 perfectly illustrates this.
This dividend stock — whose yield sits at 5.1% for this year — offers more than just stability in tough times, however. It also offers exceptional growth potential as residential rents continue to take off.
Latest Office for National Statistics data showed average rents rose 9% in the 12 months to February. This was up from 8.5% the prior month and the fastest rate on record.
Growth is especially high in the family home segment, too, an area on which PRS REIT is laser focused. This explains why the trust’s like-for-like rents (based on average rent per unit for stabilised sites) rocketed 11.1% last year, up from 5.7% in 2022.
A sudden uptick in home supply could dampen these heady growth rates. But with poor homebuilding rates persisting and Britain’s population rapidly inceasing, I expect conditions to remain ultra favourable for property stocks such as this.
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Vistry Group
FTSE 250 builder Vistry Group (LSE:VTY) could also prove a wise investment amid signs that Britain’s housing market is turning the corner.
Latest data from Rightmove showed average home values rise for their fastest pace in 10 months in March. This follows a raft of solid trading updates from FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 builders amid an uptick in the mortgage market.
Vistry itself announced on 14 March that its sales rate had improved to 0.72 sales per week per site since the start of 2024. This was up from 0.61 a year earlier, and led to its predicting “[a] strong growth in completions” for the year.
Sales could really pick up steam if inflation topples and interest rates follow suit, too. Analysts at Capital Economics have even tipped consumer price inflation to fall towards 1% in 2024, well below the 2% Bank of England estimate.
Vistry’s dividend yield for 2024 sits at 4%, ahead of the FTSE 250 average of 3.4%. But it’s not just this market-beating yield that attracts me. The possibility of strong and sustained payout growth makes the builder one to watch, in my view.
A predicted dividend jump for 2025 drives the yield for then to 5.2%.
Of course there’s no guarantee that mortgage products will continue to improve for buyers. Indeed, several lenders have raised rates in recent days in response to increasing money market swap rates.
But Vistry is still a share I’m seriously considering buying today. And especially given its focus on the more resilient affordable homes segment.
