Chart of the week
The world of participatory financing (or crowdfunding) will celebrate, in 2024, the tenth anniversary of the ordinance which, by regulating the sector, helped to boost its development in France. This anniversary year is off to a bad start: the figures from the latest crowdfunding barometer in France, published on February 7 by the audit firm Mazars and the Financement participatif France association, show a drop in fundraising of around 11% in 2023, at 2.1 billion euros.
If we exclude donations, the 2023 collection in the form of loans (interest-bearing credits, minibons, bonds) and investments (mainly in capital, but also in royalties) falls below the 2 billion euros mark, at 1 .9 billion, or 14% less than in 2022. This is the first time that the sector, which has experienced sustained growth over the last ten years, has seen its attractiveness diminish.
These results were expected: crowdfunding mainly finances real estate projects (of property dealers and developers, above all), and real estate went through a difficult year in 2023.
“In a context of the sharpest contraction in the real estate market in ten years (sudden increase in credit rates and drop in transactions), crowdfunding does not escape the economic realities of the underlying assets it finances”, note the authors of the barometer. They note, for 2023, a decline of 28% in real estate collections. If the sector remains the leading receptacle for crowdfunding, its weight is decreasing, from 68% in 2022 to 56% in 2023.
Delays pile up
And the barometer, which is based on data communicated by sixty-two crowdfunding platforms, reports a “notable increase in risk indicators”.
Repaying investors on time or almost on time is less and less systematic: in 2023, delays of more than six months concern 20% to 25% of real estate projects, compared to 6.61% in 2021. “Most of the delays were negotiated by the platforms in order to reschedule the project leader’s debt and allow it, ultimately, to repay individual investors”specify the authors.
Real estate that cries, renewables that laugh: while stone is seeing its collection decrease, the renewable energy sector is recording a further increase in its collection, of 12%. It now represents almost 18% of the overall collection. “The operations mainly concern solar energy projects (79%) which are well ahead of wind power (10%), biogas (7%) and hydroelectricity (1%)”, details the barometer. Payment delays are much less common here, with those of more than six months affecting 2% to 4% of files.
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