Building a strong retirement portfolio requires a mix of defensive assets and reliable income streams.
According to analysts at Bell Potter, two standout ASX shares that could fit this criteria are named below.
These stocks offer investors stability, income, and long-term growth potential, potentially making them ideal additions to a retirement-focused portfolio. Here's what the broker is saying about them:
Qualitas Real Estate Income Fund (ASX: QRI)
Bell Potter is a big fan of Qualitas Real Estate Income Fund. So much so, it has named it one of its top picks for 2025.
The broker notes that "QRI provides investors exposure to the Commercial Real Estate (CRE) loans, secured by real property mortgages that are diversified by borrower, loan type, property sector and location."
With the Australian property market continuing to grow, Qualitas Real Estate Income Fund is well-positioned to benefit from increasing opportunities in commercial real estate financing. Bell Potter highlights that "the manager uses their extensive experience in the CRE sector and portfolio size to optimise loan selection to ensure a steady stream of distributions to unitholders whilst managing risk."
Since the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) and the implementation of the Basel III regulatory framework, traditional financiers have reduced their presence in the CRE sector. This shift has created more investment opportunities for QRI, with Bell Potter stating that since then "the share of traditional financiers in the CRE sector has been steadily declining, creating more investment opportunities for QRI, which is further strengthened by the continued growth of the Australian property market."
In FY 2024, the company paid shareholders a 14 cents per share dividend. This equates to an 8.6% dividend yield at current prices.
Transurban Group (ASX: TCL)
Another ASX share that has been named as a best buy by Bell Potter and could be a top option for a retirement portfolio is Transurban Group.
It owns and operates a high-quality portfolio of toll roads across the globe, providing it with stable, inflation-linked revenue streams.
Bell Potter, which has Transurban on its Australian equities panel, believes the company is well-placed in the current macroeconomic environment. It said: "We believe the current inflationary environment is favourable for Transurban given its inflation-linked revenue stream with annual escalators. Moreover, TCL provides low risk cash flows over the long term, with long concession duration (30+ years), and relative traffic/income resilience."
In addition to its defensive characteristics, Transurban also has a strong pipeline of growth projects. Bell Potter highlights that "the group's current pipeline of growth projects is $3.3 billion (TCL's share of total project cost) and further huge development opportunities are expected over the next few decades, supported by population and economic growth."
In light of this, investors in Transurban can expect a reliable income stream. This includes the broker forecasting a dividend yield of approximately 5% over the next 12 months.
