investing in an SCPI free of charge, is it really possible?

Subscription, management and work follow-up costs… While some SCPIs pile up the costs, others do everything to reduce them. If you want to invest at a lower cost, here is a quick overview of low-cost SCPIs.

Investing in stone is expensive. This is true for classic real estate. But also for paper stone. Because it is a fact: civil real estate investment companies (SCPI) are today one of the most expensive financial investments.

how much are these fees? The question is by no means obvious. Because very often, several types of fees stack upwhich makes comparison difficult, explains Jonathan Dhiver, founder of bestcpi.com.

There are subscription fees. Management fees. But also the costs of selling assets. Those monitoring the work. Or transaction fees. And to make matters worse… From one SCPI to another, these costs are not always the same.

But then… How do you know which SCPIs are the least expensive? The easiest way is to focus on the three main tariff lines of SCPIs, namely the acquisition, subscription and management fees, says Jonathan Dhiver.

Zero fees?

First, there are the subscription fees. These costs are paid only once, when the units are acquired. In 2021, their amount was on average 10.47%according to a study by the company Rock-n-Data (1).

The subscription fees are used to remunerate the brokers who promote the SCPI. These latter receive 5 7% the amount of your investment. THE 4 5% remaining go to the management company.

For several years, these fees have been falling. The SCPI Activimmo, for example, invoices today 12% subscription fees, against 12.72% 1 year ago. Other SCPIs go further. Iroko Zen, Novaxia Neo, and Remake Live, for example, waived those fees.

Just behind these three players, we find the SCPI Altixia Commerces, which invoices only 3% subscription fees. As well as Epsilon 360 SCPIs (6%), Elyses Pierre (7.2%) or Selectinvest 1 (7.5%).

On average, you have to keep your shares at least 8 years old to amortize underwriting costs, notes Jonathan Dhiver. A finding to which SCPIs escape without subscription fees. But only in part.

Even on SCPIs without subscription fees, there is often a minimum holding period, which can range from 3 to 5 years, during which fees will be applied in the event of resale of the shares, adds Clément Renault, co-founder of Louve Invest. .

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More criteria

And what about management fees? Their amount is even higher. In 2021, these costs averaged 11.35%. This did not prevent the SCPIs from collecting nearly 10 billion euros last year, according to France SCPI. Never seen.

These fees are used to manage the SCPI real estate portfolio. As well as their day-to-day functioning. And unlike sales charges, they haven’t gone down over the past few years.

Some SCPIs have made the effort to reduce their management fees. This is particularly the case for Pierrevenus, Immo Evolutif, Aestiam Cap’Hebergimmo and two SCPIs operated by the management company AEW Patrimoine, which all invoice 7.2% of charges.

Conversely, SCPIs without subscription fees often charge higher management fees in return. Novaxia Neo and Remake Live, for example, both take 18% management fees.

Amounts that may seem prohibitive at first sight. But in reality, management fees are (almost) invisible to unitholders, since SCPI returns are always shown net of fees.

Costs cannot be the only indicators when choosing your SCPI. It is interesting to watch them to understand the strategy of the management company. But other criteria must also be taken into account: share price, liquidity, distribution rate, sector of activity…, insists Jonathan Dhiver.

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(1) Study dated April 2021, carried out on a sample of 96 SCPIs for management fees, and 97 SCPIs for subscription fees.