VNQ

Vanguard Real Estate ETF

HARAM — DATA INCOMPLETEetf

Is VNQ Halal?

REIT ETF — most REITs fail Sharia screens due to conventional debt/interest.

What You Should Know

Vanguard's January 31, 2026 audited statements report $65.863 billion of total assets and $1.916 billion of investment income, with REITs and a Vanguard real-estate subsidiary as the core exposure. Fund-level ratios are low, but underlying REIT debt, mortgage exposure and tenant activity remain school- and issuer-specific.

⚠️ Concerns

  • REIT leverage involves interest (riba)
  • Conventional debt financing
  • Mortgage REITs and mixed tenant activity
  • Underlying issuer screens are incomplete at fund level

Current quantitative Sharia screen

Based on Annual Shareholder Report figures for the period ended 2026-01-31; calculated 2026-07-14.

USD · millions
Interest-bearing debt / assets
0.00%Within limit
Below 33.333% under FTSE Yasaar

0 / 65,863.217

Cash + interest-bearing securities / assets
1.32%Within limit
Below 33.333% under FTSE Yasaar

866.877 / 65,863.217

Receivables + cash / assets
0.13%Within limit
Below 50% under FTSE Yasaar

88.085 / 65,863.217

Non-compliant income / revenue
0.45%Within limit
No more than 5% under FTSE Yasaar

8.545 / 1,915.742

FTSE Yasaar
v4.6, February 2026
Financial
Pass
Overall
Incomplete

Debt/assets is 0.00%, liquidity/assets is 1.32%, receivables-plus-cash/assets is 0.13% and disclosed non-compliant income is 0.45%; underlying REIT activity remains incomplete.

MSCI Islamic (total-assets series)
October 2024 methodology
Financial
Pass
Overall
Incomplete

Reported debt, liquidity and receivables-plus-cash are below the examined MSCI total-assets limits, but underlying REIT activity remains incomplete.

Malaysia SAC financial ratios
single 5% activity benchmark adopted November 2025
Financial
Pass
Overall
Incomplete

Reported debt and liquidity ratios are below the examined Malaysia limits; no universal underlying-REIT activity numerator is asserted.

Market-cap denominator methods
MSCI M-Series, S&P and Dow Jones methods differ
Financial
Not calculated
Overall
Incomplete

A licensed historical fund look-through market-cap series and universal issuer activity convention are not stored.

Business-activity disclosure

VNQ holds U.S. REIT securities and a real-estate subsidiary. Property ownership and leasing can be permissible, but the underlying REIT debt, mortgage exposure, tenant activities and subsidiary look-through require issuer- and scholar-specific analysis.

Limitation: The fund report does not provide a universal prohibited-revenue and debt numerator for every underlying REIT under one school-neutral convention.

Purification

The report discloses aggregate dividends and a small amount of interest and securities-lending income, but not a scholar-approved purification schedule for every underlying REIT; ZakatInvest does not infer one.

Inputs, assumptions and primary sources
  • Amounts are USD millions converted from Vanguard's January 31, 2026 audited Real Estate Index Fund statements.
  • The statement reports $65,863.217 million of total assets, $65,741.872 million of net assets, $2.897 million of cash, $863.980 million of money-market and repurchase-agreement investments, and $85.188 million of accrued-income and capital-share receivables.
  • Total investment income is $1,915.742 million. Disclosed interest, affiliated interest and securities-lending income total $8.545 million; dividends and subsidiary distributions are not treated as a universal prohibited-revenue numerator.
  • The fund invests in REIT securities and a Vanguard Real Estate II subsidiary; fund-level financial ratios do not replace issuer-level debt, tenant and activity screens.

This is a reproducible financial screen, not a fatwa. A failed total-assets screen can coexist with a pass under a market-cap methodology. ZakatInvest keeps the qualitative assessment separate so numerical thresholds do not erase material context.

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