Reports

What are the best Australian share ETFs of 2023?

We road test 5 popular Australian share ETFs, comparing them across 6 factors.

Australian share ETFs continue to gain in popularity. As of 30 September 2023 there is nearly $44 billion invested in ETFs tracking Australian shares, growing at a rate of 23% per year over the last five years.

Each year we compare all 300+ ETFs in our Australian ETF Report. Here we road test 5 popular Australian share ETFs, comparing them across 6 factors:

  1. Size
  2. Costs
  3. Slippage
  4. Liquidity
  5. Returns
  6. Track record
  7. Stockspot’s verdict

ETFs track a market index rather than taking bets on individual companies. For this reason, their management fees are much lower than typical ‘active’ fund managers. Tracking a market ‘index’ also offers the benefits of transparency and potential tax efficiency. ETF investors directly benefit from share capital gains, dividends and franking credits paid by shares contained within an ETF.
See our ETF Performance Comparison Tables to see all categories.

The Best Australian Share ETFs for 2022 Review: STW, VAS, IOZ, MVW, A200

Size

ASX codeETF nameSize ($B)*
STWSPDR S&P/ASX 200 ETF4.6
VASVanguard Australian Shares Index ETF12.7
IOZiShares Core S&P/ASX 200 ETF4.4
MVWVanEck Australian Equal Weight ETF1.9
A200Betashares Australia 200 ETF3.3

*Total fund assets under management at 30 September 2023

VAS and STW are the largest Australian share ETFs managing $12.7 billion and $4.6 billion respectively. MVW has been growing fast and now manages almost $1.9 billion while the most recently launched A200 ETF from Betashares debuted in May 2018 with $50 million under management and has since grown to $3.3 billion. IOZ saw some large outflows over the past year from big institutions, and now holds $4.4 billion.

Size is important because ETFs must reach a certain size to become viable. As ETFs gather more assets it becomes easier for them to cut their expense ratios (fees) to continue attracting more funds. On the other hand, ETFs which haven’t achieved critical mass sometimes shut down and return investor funds or increase their fees to cover their costs.

Costs

ASX codeETF nameMER (% p.a.)
STWSPDR S&P/ASX 200 ETF0.13
VASVanguard Australian Shares Index ETF0.10
IOZiShares Core S&P/ASX 200 ETF0.05
MVWVanEck Australian Equal Weight ETF0.35
A200Betashares Australia 200 ETF0.04

ETF expense ratios are becoming more competitive in Australia. In 2015 STW lowered its MER from 0.29% to 0.19% in response to competitive pressures from VAS and IOZ which were gaining market share with fees of 0.10% and 0.09% respectively. After many years of sitting on their hands, STW have reduced it’s fee to 0.13% in March 2020. We expect the fee war to continue. 

These ETFs have been undercut by Betashares when they launched A200 at 0.07% p.a. (and have since reduced to 0.04% in March 2023). This sent a strong signal from Betashares that it intends to compete with State Street, Vanguard and iShares in this category.

VAS is the most profitable ETF, earning ~$9 million in revenue per year given it’s large share of the Australian share ETF pie, more than enough to be sustainable. On the other hand the recently launched A200 is earning ~$1.3 million p.a. in fees based on its $3.3 billion AUM. Betashares will be hoping it can continue to amass significant funds so that fee revenue allows this product to be financially viable for them. On average, Betashares has some of the higher fee ETFs available in Australia so it’s possible that A200 is being positioned as a price-leader in this category to build brand awareness of Betashares and allow the business to introduce other products to investors.

Read about how Stockspot takes the guesswork out of choosing ETFs and builds you a diversified portfolio online.

The 3 lowest cost ETFs are now within 0.06% p.a. of each other on fees. That’s great news because costs are one of the only factors you can fully control when investing in Australian shares. The less you pay a fund, the more of the returns you keep in your pocket.

That said, costs have converged to the point where investors need to carefully consider other factors including the funds commercial viability, liquidity and track record.

Slippage

ASX code ETF name % Spread
STW SPDR S&P/ASX 200 ETF 0.03
VAS Vanguard Australian Shares Index ETF 0.02
IOZ iShares Core S&P/ASX 200 ETF 0.04
MVW VanEck Australian Equal Weight ETF 0.07
A200 Betashares Australia 200 ETF 0.03

Slippage refers to how much you lose by crossing the spread when buying or selling an ETF. It’s calculated by the average percentage difference between the best buyer and seller during market hours.

It has more of an impact if you’re trading an ETF or making regular contributions because you’ll need to cross the spread more often to get invested. VAS has the lowest slippage at 0.02% (two hundreth of one percent) followed by A200 and STW at 0.03% followed closely IOZ at 0.04% and MVW at 0.07%.

By comparison the average Australian Equity managed fund offered on the ASX mFunds platform charges a bid/ask spread of 0.55% which is more than 27x more than VAS! ETFs have much lower slippage than most active funds which means investors aren’t starting behind the 8 ball when they invest.

Liquidity

ASX code ETF name Daily Transacted Value ($m)
STW SPDR S&P/ASX 200 ETF $9.2m
VAS Vanguard Australian Shares Index ETF $30.5m
IOZ iShares Core S&P/ASX 200 ETF $18.9m
MVW VanEck Australian Equal Weight ETF $4.1m
A200 Betashares Australia 200 ETF $13..5m

Liquidity refers to the amount of turnover (or available turnover) in an ETF. We measure it by average daily volume on the ASX. Volume is a measure of market making activity and trading interest which makes it a reasonable estimate of liquidity.

It’s worth mentioning that it may not reflect liquidity in the underlying stocks which is typically much deeper for broad Australian share ETFs. However in times of crisis investors may not be able to rely exclusively on market makers for liquidity so daily volume is a relevant figure.

VAS has the highest liquidity in the category, dominating with over $30 million being traded per day. IOZ is the second highest at $19 million while A200 and STW are behind followed by MVW which has the lowest volume traded.

Returns

ASX code ETF name 5 Year Total Return p.a.
STW SPDR S&P/ASX 200 ETF 8.1%
VAS Vanguard Australian Shares Index ETF 8.0%
IOZ iShares Core S&P/ASX 200 ETF 8.0%
MVW VanEck Australian Equal Weight ETF 7.2%
A200 Betashares Australia 200 ETF 8.1%

Total return to 30 September 2023. Source: ASX

The Australian share ETFs all generated similar returns over the last 5 years with IOZ, STW, VAS and A200 all returning around 8% p.a. MVW has underperformed it’s peers with a return of 7.2% p.a. given it’s skew to smaller companies. 

Where STW, VAS, IOZ and A200 are market-size weighted indices, MVW is an equal-weight index. This leads MVW to take weight out of the largest 10-15 shares and spread it across smaller companies.

The performance of these smaller shares relative to the largest companies is a key driver of differences between MVW and market-size based ETFs.

Track record

The longer a track record of an ETF and the index it mirrors, the better understanding you have of how an index reacts to different market conditions as well as how closely the ETF is tracking its index.

Most of the broad Australian share indices like the S&P/ASX 200 and S&P/ASX 300 have existed for some time so you can see how they performed through boom times like 2003-2007 as well as periods of market stress like 2008.

Also important is the ‘tracking error’ which measures how well an ETF has done at mirroring its index. For example over the last 10 years VAS has generated 7.3% p.a. in returns compared to the benchmark (S&P/ASX 300) which has delivered 7.4% p.a.

Tracking error is rarely zero because there are various factors that prevent an ETF from perfectly mirroring its index including fees. In the case of VAS, the difference roughly equals its fees (~0.10%), which means it’s doing its job right.

Betashares’ A200 fund tracks the newly created Solactive Australia 200 Index. It will take some time not only to see how the index performs, but also how closely A200 tracks the index.

ASX code ETF name Index history
STW SPDR S&P/ASX 200 ETF 24 years
VAS Vanguard Australian Shares Index ETF 24 years
IOZ iShares Core S&P/ASX 200 ETF 24 years
MVW VanEck Australian Equal Weight ETF 21 years
A200 Betashares Australia 200 ETF 13 years

Stockspot’s verdict

Since 2014 we’ve invested on behalf of our clients into the Vanguard Australian Shares Index ETF (VAS).

What we originally liked about this fund was its low costs (0.10% p.a.) and that Vanguard has a consistent track record of lowering its fees, not just in response to competitors, but simply because it can.

We continue to favour VAS for a few reasons:

  • VAS’ low expense ratio (0.10% p.a.) and global track record of reducing costs. By comparison, the largest Australian share ETF (STW) waited 7 years before it lowered its costs from 0.29% to 0.19% in December 2015 and then another 5 years to reduce to 0.13%. It is not surprising that VAS overtook STW in July 2019, as the largest Australian share ETF

  • VAS’s broader ASX 300 exposure compared to STW and IOZ which track the ASX 200
  • VAS’ large size ($12.7 billion) and liquidity ($30 million per day)
  • VAS’ low tracking error and slippage
  • VAS’ consistent return history and the 24 year track record of the S&P/ASX 300 index

While MVW can go through some some periods of good relative performance, we aren’t compelled by the equal-weight strategy or other non-market cap weighted strategies for reasons we explained in ‘Should you buy into smart beta ETFs?‘.

Where our clients want more exposure to smaller shares we recommend adding a pure small cap tilt using the Vanguard MSCI Australian Small Companies Index ETF (VSO) as a Stockspot Theme. The VSO fund charges 0.30% p.a. and returned 6.2% p.a. over the 5 years to 30 September 2023, slightly underperforming MVW.

Betashares’ recently launched A200 has received a large take up over its first few years. If it can continue to grow assets to become commercially sustainable while also increasing fund liquidity and building a performance track record, it will become an attractive Australian share ETF option.

For now we continue to be confident in recommending VAS to our clients due to its size, commercial viability, liquidity and track record.

As a final note it’s great to see the original Australian share ETF (STW) as well as global ETF giants (VAS and IOZ), different index strategies (MVW) and local disruptors (A200) all have broad Australian share ETFs available.

The Australian ETF ecosystem continues to grow at a rapid pace which is fantastic news for investors.

Stockspot builds and manages your sharemarket portfolio for you, so you can get on with enjoying life and not having to worry about picking stocks.
  • Chris Brycki

    Founder and CEO

    Chris has over 25 years of investment experience and spent most of his early career as a Portfolio Manager at UBS. Chris has been a member of the ASIC Digital Advisory Committee and volunteers as a member of the Investment Committee for the NSW Cancer Council. He holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Accounting/Finance Co-op Scholarship) from UNSW.


Founder and CEO

Chris has over 25 years of investment experience and spent most of his early career as a Portfolio Manager at UBS. Chris has been a member of the ASIC Digital Advisory Committee and volunteers as a member of the Investment Committee for the NSW Cancer Council. He holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Accounting/Finance Co-op Scholarship) from UNSW.

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