Yes, if the capital investments are considered expenses, but gains on sale of properties are not considered ‘income’ (just lucky, unrepeatable windfalls), then they could be seen as not making enough income to sustainably cover the dividend.

But if the capital investments create higher income (e.g. higher rents) but the timing of the capital investments means those revenues are delayed for a few years, then after a few years, higher incomes on old projects should roughly match high costs in new investments.

So I take it you are attributing the apparent shortfall not to the latter ‘timing’ mechanism but rather to the former phenomenon, the failure to recognize that much of the capital expenses on assets are improvements that should be matched up with realized capital gains.

dtb