Four New ETFs from iShares for Global REIT

Effective Friday, November 16, Barclays Global Investors listed four new exchange traded funds (ETFs) in NASDAQ market, that track real estate investment trusts or REITs:

iShares FTSE EPRA/NAREIT Global Real Estate ex-U.S. Index Fund (IFGL)
iShares FTSE EPRA/NAREIT Asia Index Fund (IFAS)
iShares FTSE EPRA/NAREIT Europe Index Fund (IFEU)
iShares FTSE EPRA/NAREIT North America Index Fund (IFNA).

Interestingly, all four ETFs allocate heavily to Australia, with Westfield Group being the largest single stock in all of them. Westfield is an Australia-based mall operator but approximately half of the malls operated by the company are in US and is thus exposed to the behavior of US economy and consumer sentiment. All four funds also have significant investments in Hong Kong and Japan markets.

It should be noted that Barclays already had an ETF similar to IFGL with a very similar name: iShares S&P World ex-US Property Index Fund (WPS). Along with a competitor in its own house, IFGL also needs to compete with 3 outsiders -- all of which are considered popular investment vehicles for diversified investment in the global real estate market:

SPDR Dow Jones Wilshire International Real Estate ETF (RWX),
WisdomTree International Real Estate ETF (DRW).

For purchasing ETFs, expense ratio is an important consideration to keep in mind. The ETFs from iShares, IFGL and WPS, have lower expense ratio (at 0.48%) than RWX (0.60%) or DRW (0.58%).