Schwab U.S. REIT ETF

What this fund is

Schwab U.S. REIT ETF is an exchange-traded fund (ETF) from Schwab, traded under the ticker SCHH (ISIN US8085248479). It lets you buy a basket of holdings in a single trade, spreading your money across them rather than one company. In plain terms it is about owning listed property companies (REITs), which earn rent from buildings and usually pass much of it on to investors, spread across its target market. Its largest holdings include WELLTOWER INC, PROLOGIS REIT INC and SIMON PROPERTY GROUP REIT INC.

With about 122 holdings (the ten largest ≈ 49.3%), your money is diversified rather than concentrated in a handful of names. By geography it is weighted towards ~100% US. By industry it concentrates most in ~96.5% Real Estate and ~2.6% Corporate. It is typically held as a diversifier — a slice that behaves differently from mainstream shares — rather than as a portfolio's main engine. Its ongoing charge (TER) is 0.07% a year — about €7 a year on a €10,000 holding, taken automatically from the fund.

It holds the underlying investments directly (physical replication); it is domiciled in the United States and trades in USD. Its price has swung about 13.9% over the past year — a gauge of how much the value moves, not a judgement of quality. It launched in 2011. Like any investment, it can lose value as well as gain, and what it did before does not predict what it will do next. (Fund data sourced from Schwab.)