Rare earth (RE = La, Er, and YbFeO3) ferrites are prepared from their nitrate precursors using the solution combustion method. Structural analysis using powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) technique indicates that the synthesized La-, Er-, and Yb–FeO3 perovskite nanoparticles have pure phase orthorhombic super unit cells. The XRD patterns of Er–FeO3 and Yb–FeO3 are found to be indexed in Pbnm (62) space group with cell dimensions in the range of ao = 5.2611–5.2784 Å, bo = 5.5729–5.5898 Å, and co = 7.596–7.6002 Å, while the space group of Pnma (62) with ao = 5.5688 Å, bo = 7.8523 Å, and co = 5.5542 Å are obtained for LaFeO3. Surface morphological studies show aggregated spherical-shaped nanoparticles having an orthorhombic crystal structure with an average particle size of ~ 50 nm. Magnetic properties of all the three RE ferrite synthesized in this work exhibit antiferromagnetic behavior. The study of dielectric properties of all the three RE ferrites shows dispersive behavior at low frequencies with low loss. Temperature-dependent dielectric studies confirm that the antiferromagnetic-paramagnetic transition temperature appears at 445 K. A larger P-E loop with a squareness ratio of 1.583 for ErFeO3 orthoferrites suggests that it is more advantageous than LaFeO3 and YbFeO3 for making modern electronic devices. © 2020, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.