Vanguard Real Estate Index Fund ETF (NYSE:VNQ) seeks to provide a high level of income and moderate long-term capital appreciation by tracking the performance of the MSCI US Investable Market Real Estate 25/50 Index that measures the performance of publicly traded equity REITs and other real estate-related investments. The advisor attempts to track the index by investing all, or substantially all, of its assets-either directly or indirectly through a wholly owned subsidiary, which is itself a registered investment company-in the stocks that make up the index, holding each stock in approximately the same proportion as its weighting in the index. The fund is non-diversified.

finviz dynamic chart for VNQ

Fund Overview

  • Net Assets 74.92 Billions
  • YTD Daily Total Return 21.38%
  • Yield 3.22%

Fund Operations

  • Annual Report Expense Ratio (net) 0.12%
  • Holdings Turnover 8.00%
  • Total Net Assets 20,095.68

Performance Overview

  • 21.38% YTD Daily Total Return
  • 29.29% 1-Year Daily Total Return
  • 13.29% 3-Year Daily Total Return


The Vanguard Real Estate ETF offers investors a wide range of exposure to real estate investments, with an affordable expense ratio of 0.12%. The portfolio is composed of different property types to spread risk from industrial to residential and health care REITs. “The easiest way to get broad exposure to the sector is to buy a general REIT, which owns a mix of all types of REITs/property types. This can be secured through Vanguard’s VNQ,” says Thomas Hayes, chairman and managing member at Great Hill Capital in New York City. This fund consists of 180 different equity REITs that add diversification to your portfolio.


Top 10 Holdings (45.16% of Total Assets)

NameSymbol% Assets
Vanguard Real Estate II IndexVRTPX11.94%
American Tower CorpAMT7.05%
Prologis IncPLD5.36%
Crown Castle International CorpCCI5.01%
Equinix IncEQIX3.97%
Public StoragePSA2.75%
Digital Realty Trust IncDLR2.64%
Simon Property Group IncSPG2.42%
SBA Communications CorpSBAC2.07%
Welltower IncWELL1.95%

Therefore, VNQ is the best performing REIT ETF, with a low expense ratio, that provides a wide range of exposure to real estate investments for investors.

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