Real estate investment trusts (REITs) like W.P. Carey (NYSE: WPC) are meant to be boring income investments. The stock's yield is a generous 5.4% at a time when the S&P 500 index still yields less than 2% despite a bear market. The best part, however, is that W.P. Carey's dividend payment is set to keep on growing. Here's why.

W.P. Carey is a net-lease REIT. That means that it owns properties, usually acquired via sale/leaseback transactions, but its tenants are responsible for most of the operating costs of the assets they occupy. The properties are all single tenant, which increases risk of a vacancy at any individual location, but across the REIT's 1,400 plus portfolio, the risk is fairly low. 

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Source Fool.com