HAUZ vs RWX: A Tale of Two ETFs and Their Divergent Paths to Prosperity

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Picture, if you will, two gentlemen’s clubs in Mayfair – one with a butler who charges sixpence for every shilling’s worth of service, and another where the steward slips you a half-crown dividend alongside your pint of bitter. Such is the charming quandary presented by the SPDR Dow Jones International Real Estate ETF (RWX +0.71%) and Xtrackers International Real Estate ETF (HAUZ +0.21%), twin conveyances for the discerning investor seeking to dabble in foreign bricks and mortar.

Both funds fancy themselves as modern-day Phileas Foggs circumnavigating the globe in search of property fortunes, yet their methods might as well hail from different centuries. Let us, with the precision of a Savile Row tailor measuring a waistcoat, dissect these financial garments to discover which better fits the sartorially conscious investor.

Snapshot (cost & size)

Metric HAUZ RWX
Issuer Xtrackers SPDR
Expense ratio 0.10% 0.59%
1-year return (as of 2026-1-2) 22.7% 26.9%
Dividend yield 3.91% 3.36%
Beta 0.89 0.82
AUM $932 million $295 million

Beta here serves as the financial equivalent of a barometer predicting stormy weather relative to the S&P 500’s gentle drizzle, while the one-year return measures how our proverbial goose has laid golden eggs over twelve lunar cycles.

RWX, with its 0.59% expense ratio, might be likened to a club charging six times the usual subscription for precisely the same brand of gin-and-tonic, while HAUZ’s 0.10% figure resembles a particularly generous host offering fortified wine at bargain-basement prices.

Performance & risk comparison

Metric HAUZ RWX
Max drawdown (5 y) -34.5% -35.9%
Growth of $1,000 over 5 years $1,056 $1,014

What’s inside

RWX follows the Dow Jones Global ex-U.S. Select Real Estate Securities Index with the devotion of a spaniel trailing its master, boasting 120 holdings that include such continental luminaries as Mitsui Fudosan Co., Scentre Group, and Swiss Prime Site. One might call it the financial equivalent of a well-curated art collection – tasteful, if slightly predictable.

HAUZ, by contrast, resembles a particularly ambitious librarian who’s decided to catalogue every property concern from the Falkland Islands to Kamchatka, offering 408 holdings that include Goodman Group, Mitsui Fudosan (again – apparently they’re quite good at what they do), and Mitsubishi Estate Company. For those seeking to spread their investments like confetti at a ticker-tape parade, this might prove irresistible.

For further enlightenment on the mysteries of ETF investing, one might consult the full guide at this link as though it were a particularly trustworthy butler.

What this means for investors

Since the year of our Lord 2013, HAUZ has compounded returns at 3.3% annually – a performance that might cause even the dullest of City clerks to raise an eyebrow, particularly when compared to RWX’s 1.4%. This outperformance, my dear chap, stems not from sorcery but simple arithmetic: HAUZ’s expense ratio could purchase only one-sixth of RWX’s, while its dividend yield positively brags with an extra half-percentage point of swagger.

Though both funds keep Japanese REITs as their most favored dance partners (24% for HAUZ, 30% for RWX), and have Australia and the U.K. respectively as their second-favorite têtes-à-tête partners, the scales tip decisively. HAUZ emerges as the financial equivalent of Jeeves – three times the holdings, lower fees, higher yield, and geographic diversification so broad it might make a United Nations delegate blush.

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Were I to don my investing cap this fine morning, I’d snap up HAUZ with the alacrity of a hungry terrier spotting a sausage, despite its current year’s stumble. After all:

  • Three times as many positions as RWX
  • Expense ratio so low it borders on philanthropy
  • Dividend yield that positively sings in the key of C-sharp
  • Geographic diversification rivaling the British Empire at its zenith
  • Long-term track record smoother than a perfectly poured pint of Guinness

In conclusion, HAUZ appears the better buy, like discovering a five-pound note in an old waistcoat pocket 🏡

Glossary

ETF: A financial contraption that behaves like a stock while containing multitudes of assets, much like a Russian nesting doll.
Expense ratio: The annual cost of fund management, expressed as a percentage – think of it as the price of keeping one’s financial ducks in a row.
Dividend yield: The annual dividend divided by share price, serving as a financial thermometer measuring income generation.
Total return: Investment performance accounting for both capital gains and reinvested dividends – the financial equivalent of having one’s cake and eating it too.
Beta: A measure of volatility against the S&P 500, akin to comparing one’s dancing ability to Fred Astaire’s.
AUM: The total value of assets under management, revealing whether one’s financial ship is a yacht or a dinghy.
Max drawdown: The largest decline from peak to trough, much like measuring how far one’s hat flies off in a stiff breeze.
Growth of $1,000: A hypothetical illustration of investment growth, useful for impressing dinner guests with mathematical parlor tricks.
Index: A rules-based securities basket, functioning much like a recipe for financial success.
Sector allocation: How assets are distributed across industries – the financial version of not putting all one’s eggs in a single basket.
Holdings: The individual securities owned by a fund, akin to the contents of Fort Knox minus the armed guards.
Real estate securities: Stocks issued by property-owning companies, allowing investors to own skyscrapers without purchasing a hard hat.

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2026-01-04 21:59