If you prefer to invest in international real estate, this should be your choice, although it is heavily weighted to the US (73% of assets). Other countries in the mix are Japan, Australia, Singapore, the UK, and France. Canada comprises only 2% of the portfolio. All told, the fund holds 318 positions.

You may wonder how an ETF that invests only in six banks can outperform the Financials sub-index and funds like the BMO Equal Weight Banks Index ETF (TSX: ZEB). The answer is asset mix.

Whereas the BMO fund equally divides its holdings among the Big Six banks, this one makes bets on which will perform best. At present, Bank of Montreal is the top position at 26.1% followed closely by Scotiabank at 25.1%. They’ve both done well, with BMO ahead about 43% year to date while Scotiabank has added about 24%.

This ETF tracks the performance of the Manulife Investment Management Global Infrastructure Index, net of expenses. It theoretically targets infrastructure companies from around the world but in fact most of its assets are in the US and Canada. The MER is 0.72%.

It was started in 2008 and has assets under management of about $1.6 billion

This fund invests in all classes of REITs, including residential, industrial, retail, and office. It has 14 holdings, the largest of which is RioCan REIT, which accounts for 13.14% of total assets. Retail REITs form about 51% of the portfolio while exposure to office REITs, which were hit hard during the pandemic, is very low at 3.33%.

The REIT has not delivered anything in the way of capital gains since it was recommended 15 years ago, which says a lot about the overall state of Canada’s real estate business. But it has delivered steady cash flow to investors and has significantly outperformed the overall sector year-to-date with a gain of just over 15%.

All Canadian banks have performed well this year, and CIBC is up about 33% year-to-date.