SPRE vs VNQI

SPREDSP Funds S&P Global REIT Sharia ETF

VNQIAVanguard Global ex-U.S. Real Estate ETF

In short

SPRE Real estate runs on borrowed money, which makes it a hard sector to screen for Islamic investors. SPRE takes that job on: a Sharia-screened global equity-REIT index spanning developed and emerging markets, with monthly distributions.

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

SPRE The Fund seeks to track, before fees and expenses, the performance of the S&P Global All Equity REIT Shariah Capped 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

• SPRE A rare way to own listed property worldwide under an Islamic screen. It tracks the S&P Global All Equity REIT Shariah Capped Index, so the screen is written into the mandate, not applied by hand.
• Genuinely global reach: developed and emerging market REITs, not a US-only slice of the sector.
• The index is capped, which keeps any single landlord from swallowing the portfolio.
• Cash comes back monthly rather than quarterly, the cadence income-focused holders tend to prefer.

• 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

• SPRE 0.50% a year is the price of the screen. Plain-vanilla global REIT trackers such as REET, HAUZ and VNQI run for a fraction of that.
• Screening a debt-heavy sector thins the field, leaving a shorter, more concentrated roster than an unscreened global REIT fund.
• A smaller, moderately traded fund, so trading costs deserve more attention than with the giants of the category.

• 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 SPRE profile⁠

Full VNQI profile⁠