RITA vs VNQI

RITACETFB Green SRI REITs ETF

VNQIAVanguard Global ex-U.S. Real Estate ETF

In short

RITA Most REIT funds sort by yield or size. RITA sorts by two filters at once: Shariah compliance and green building credentials, applied to developed-market REITs through an FTSE EPRA Nareit index. A narrow niche, run by published rules.

VNQI Everything outside the US property market in one ticker: roughly 700 REITs, landlords and developers across 30-plus countries, developed and emerging, for 0.12% a year.

Stated mandate

RITA The Fund seeks to track, before fees and expenses, the performance of the FTSE EPRA Nareit IdealRatings Developed REITs Index.

VNQI The Fund seeks to track the S&P Global ex-U.S. Property Index, an index of international real estate stocks in developed and emerging markets. It generally uses full replication and invests at least 80% of assets in index securities.

Why people hold it

• RITA Rare double screen: its FTSE EPRA Nareit IdealRatings index filters developed-market REITs for Shariah compliance and green criteria in one ticker.lseg.com
• The rulebook is public. FTSE Russell posts the ground rules and Islamic screening guidelines, and constituents are re-screened on a set review calendar.lseg.com
• Screens usually cost extra. This one's 0.50% expense ratio sits right at the median for global and international real estate funds.
• Plain plumbing underneath: a 1940 Act index fund holding developed-market REITs, paying distributions quarterly.

• VNQI At 0.12% a year, it costs about a quarter of the typical global real estate fund and lands within two basis points of the cheapest in its peer group (HAUZ, 0.10%).
• Full replication across roughly 700 names in more than 30 countries, so no single Tokyo landlord or Sydney mall owner carries the portfolio.vanguard.com
• The benchmark reaches past pure REITs into companies that own, manage and develop property, which is how it covers markets where the REIT structure barely exists.spindices.com
• Trading since 2010 and one of the tighter index trackers in its cohort, which is the whole job for a fund like this.

Worth knowing

• RITA Broad global REIT trackers cost a fraction: HAUZ at 0.10% and REET at 0.14% against RITA's 0.50%. The screens are what the extra buys.
• Small and thinly traded, so bid/ask spreads can run wide and limit orders matter more here than with the giant REIT funds.
• The screens cut the developed REIT universe down to a few dozen names, so single-name and property-type concentration runs higher than in a broad index.stockanalysis.com

• VNQI Currency exposure is unhedged, so moves in the dollar against the yen, euro and other local currencies feed straight into results.vanguard.com
• Emerging markets and China-linked property companies are in the mix, a risk set the prospectus calls out separately from developed-market investing.vanguard.com
• Distributions land annually or semiannually rather than monthly, so the income arrives in lumps.

Full RITA profile⁠

Full VNQI profile⁠