Equity Residential is one of America's largest apartment landlords — the company Sam Zell took public in 1993. It owns ~85,000 flats in expensive coastal gateway cities (Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington DC, New York, Boston, Seattle), collects rent from urban renters priced out of buying, and pays most of that income out to shareholders as dividends, as REIT rules require.
How a flat becomes a dividend
Investors and lenders fund EQR; EQR owns apartment buildings in expensive cities; its in-house teams lease and run them; urban renters pay rent; and REIT rules force most of that rent back out to shareholders as dividends.