Why invest in a villa in Tuscany when you can buy an international real estate exchange traded fund? Now there’s an opportunity to diversify globally with your real estate investments. According to the Wall Street Journal, State Street has filed with the SEC to start an ETF in international real estate. Currently, there is not a fund that entirely taps into international real estate.
The ETF will hold securities from 23 countries. Despite the large number of countries in the index, nearly 60% of the holdings are concentrated in Australia (20%), the U.K. (19%) and Japan (18%). The top nine countries comprise of just more than 90% of the weightings. Many of the stocks in the index are real estate operating companies, not real estate investment trusts.
The opinions and forecasts expressed herein are solely those of Tom Lydon, and may not actually come to pass. Information on this site should not be used or construed as an offer to sell, a solicitation of an offer to buy, or a recommendation for any product.