Equity dividend rate is reserved for real estate income properties, it's the annual cash flow from the property divided by your cash investment. Sometimes called return on equity or cash-on-cash. This is a return rate based on the annual net cash flow of the equity invested.

Example: an apartment investment required $350,000 down payment. After paying the annual debt service and operating expense, there is $15,000 net cash flow. The Cash-On-Cash return is $15,000/$350,000 = 4.285%. This rate is compared to other investment return rates to assess the opportunity.