VHY vs SYI (2026): Which High-Dividend ETF Is Better?

VHY and SYI have delivered almost identical returns: 14.85% vs 14.94% a year over three years and 11.91% vs 11.81% over five, to 30 September 2026. They get there with very different portfolios, though. VHY (Vanguard, 0.25%) is a large, bank-and-miner-heavy fund with BHP and CBA at the top. SYI (State Street, 0.20%) is cheaper and smaller, and applies quality screens that leave BHP and CBA out of its top 10 and put CSL first. Choose VHY for size, steady quarterly payouts and high franking. Choose SYI for the lower fee and a different mix of companies.

VHY vs SYI at a glance

	VHY	SYI
Issuer	Vanguard	State Street (SPDR)
Index	FTSE Australia High Dividend Yield	MSCI Australia Select High Dividend Yield
Fee (p.a.)	0.25%	0.20%
ETF size	A$8.2b	A$745m
Holdings	90	57
Top 10 share of fund	61.6%	about 69%
Dividend yield of holdings	4.0%	4.01%
Distributions	Quarterly	Quarterly

VHY from Vanguard's 30 September 2026 fact sheet. SYI from State Street: size and top 10 at 14 October 2026, holdings yield at 30 September 2026.

Returns: a near dead heat

After fees, to 30 Sep 2026	VHY	SYI	VAS (broad market)
1 year	12.30%	15.26%	2.34%
3 years p.a.	14.85%	14.94%	11.29%
5 years p.a.	11.91%	11.81%	7.43%
10 years p.a.	10.22%	9.16%	8.95%

Sources: Vanguard fact sheets for VHY and VAS; State Street for SYI. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance.

Over three and five years the two are within 0.1% a year of each other. SYI led over the past year and VHY over ten. Both have comfortably beaten the broad market VAS over every period shown. That gap reflects a strong run for the sectors these funds favour, not a permanent feature of dividend investing.

The real difference: what they own

The two funds pick high-yield companies using different rules, and it shows in their holdings:

Top holdings	VHY (30 Sep 2026)	SYI (14 Oct 2026)
1	BHP	CSL (12.59%)
2	Commonwealth Bank	ANZ (10.01%)
3	NAB	NAB (9.66%)
4	Westpac	Westpac (8.85%)
5	ANZ	Telstra (7.42%)
6–10	Rio Tinto, Woodside, Telstra, Macquarie, CSL	QBE, Coles, Santos, Evolution Mining, Computershare

Sector	VHY (30 Sep 2026)	SYI (14 Oct 2026)
Financials	39.2%	45.6%
Materials / basic materials	21.6%	7.1%
Energy	10.9%	4.5%
Health care	5.1%	13.8%

VHY uses the ICB sector system and SYI uses GICS, so the sector labels aren't perfectly comparable.

VHY ranks ASX companies by forecast dividend yield. It caps any one industry at 40% and any one company at 10%, and excludes REITs (Vanguard). The result looks like the big end of the ASX: banks, miners and energy.

SYI only admits companies whose yield is at least 30% above the market's. It then removes companies with extreme or negative payout ratios, a shrinking five-year dividend, or the worst one-year price falls, and applies quality screens on return on equity, earnings variability and debt (MSCI methodology). Those screens explain why its top 10 includes CSL, QBE and Coles but not BHP or CBA.

So the choice is less about which fund is "better" and more about which bet you prefer. VHY leans into miners and energy, whose dividends rise and fall with commodity prices. SYI leans into banks, healthcare and defensive businesses.

Income and franking

VHY paid a 4.13% distribution return over the year to September 2026. Its franking level was 89.35% for the year to June 2026 but only 42.02% the year before (Vanguard), a reminder that franking varies with what the fund's companies pay.

SYI paid $2.31 per unit over the four quarters to September 2026, carrying 39.6 cents of franking credits (State Street distribution history). That's about 7.5% of its unit price, but $1.32 came in the June quarter alone. State Street notes that its funds are managed so that applications and redemptions "could distort the nature and size of distributions". The underlying dividend yield of SYI's holdings, 4.01%, is the better guide to ongoing income.

For franking's value at your tax rate, see franking credits and ETFs.

VHY or SYI vs VAS

If you're weighing a dividend ETF against the broad market, VAS holds 308 companies for 0.07% a year, with a 3.2% dividend yield (Vanguard). VHY and SYI give you about 0.8 percentage points more yield for roughly three times the fee or more, and a narrower portfolio. Over the past decade that trade has paid off. Whether it continues depends on the sectors they hold.

A common approach is to hold a broad ETF as the core and add a dividend ETF only for the income tilt you want (how many ETFs should you hold).

Which should you choose?

• Choose VHY if you want the larger, longer-established fund, steady quarterly payouts and exposure to miners and energy alongside the banks.
• Choose SYI if you want the lower fee (0.20%), MSCI's quality and dividend-sustainability screens, and less reliance on commodity prices.
• Choose neither if you're reinvesting everything for long-term growth and don't need the income tilt. A broad ETF is cheaper and more diversified.

For the highest-yielding funds, which carry bigger trade-offs, see highest dividend ETFs in Australia. The ETF calculator models how fees and distributions compound.

Frequently asked questions

Related calculators and guides

• ETF Calculator
• Highest dividend ETFs in Australia
• Franking credits and ETFs
• VAS vs A200
• Best ETFs in Australia

This article is for general information only and does not constitute financial, tax or legal advice. Individual circumstances vary. Consult a registered tax agent or licensed financial adviser before making decisions based on this information.