S&P Global Market Intelligence identified 18 U.S. real estate investment trusts that have increased their regular dividend every year between 2010 and 2018, the nine years following the Great Recession, which lasted from December 2007 to June 2009.

Self-storage landlord CubeSmart has grown its dividend payment more than 10-fold since its recession-low 2.5 cents per share at the end of 2009. The company held its IPO in October 2004 and declared its first quarterly dividend of 28 cents per share on March 2, 2005. CubeSmart later boosted its dividend to 29 cents per share.

The company, however, slashed its quarterly payment to 18 cents per share near the end of 2007, and further down to 2.5 cents per share the following year in order to help repay outstanding debt and increase the REIT's financial flexibility amid the housing crisis. The self-storage REIT has since grown its quarterly dividend to its current rate of 32 cents per share. Its current dividend yield is 4%.

Regional mall REIT Simon Property Group Inc. has raised its quarterly cash distribution over the years to $2.05 per share. In January 2009, Simon announced that it would pay its then 90-cent-per-share dividend largely in common stock, with the cash portion not exceeding 10%, a move referred to by late industry expert Ralph Block as for "all intents and purposes, a 90% dividend cut." Simon lowered its dividend to 60 cents per share for future payments in 2009, but upped the cash portion to 12 cents per share before electing to pay its 60-cent-per-share dividend on a full-cash basis starting in 2010.

Other REITs that have more than doubled their dividends following the financial crisis include office-focused Alexandria Real Estate Equities Inc., data center REIT Digital Realty Trust Inc., healthcare REIT Omega Healthcare Investors Inc. and diversified REIT W. P. Carey Inc.

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