Best Specialty ETFs

GOLD WINNER STATE STREET GLOBAL ADVISERS Assets such as property and infrastructure provide diversification and regular income

State Street’s winning SPDR S&P/ASX 200 Listed Property ETF is a low-fee entry into 20 Australian listed property trusts that pay out a solid, taxeffective income.

It paid a yield of 7.4% over the year to the end of September 2018. The ETF tracks the S&P/ ASX 200 A-REIT Index and includes A-REITs such as Scentre (19% of assets), Goodman (15%), Dexus (9%), GPT (8.5%), UnibailRodamco-Westfield (8%), Stockland (8%), Vicinity Centres (7%), Mirvac (7%), Charter Hall (3%) and Investa Office (2.6%). The companies are diversified across the retail, office and industrial sectors.

The investment management fee of 0.40% is around a third of the average fee on an actively managed A-REIT.

In equal second place is the Vanguard Australian Property Securities Index ETF, which tracks the broader S&P/ASX 300 A-REIT Index. It holds around 30 A-REITs and includes some smaller listed property trusts as well as the big ones such as Scentre, Goodman, Mirvac, Dexus and Stockland. It paid a dividend yield of 8.94% over the year to the end of September 2018, charging a low fee of 0.23%.

In equal second is Magellan’s Infrastructure (currency hedged) ETF, which invests in global assets such as toll roads, airports, water utilities and gas and energy infrastructure. Some of its investments, such as Atlantia, which owned the bridge in Genoa, Italy, that collapsed in August, have hurt the fund. But others, such as gas distributor Atmos Energy, have performed strongly.