In 2021, individuals invested €7.4 billion in shares of civil real estate investment companies (SCPI), or almost a third of what has been saved in life insurance contracts.
As the name suggests, it is a real estate investment, but indirect: these companies buy property, then assume the rental management of this park and regularly pay their partners, the savers, a share of the rents. cashed. Enough to put stone in your portfolio without necessarily having to invest several tens or hundreds of thousands of euros, since a few thousand euros are enough to buy shares. And without having to manage tenants. But above all, they are profitable!
“Since their creation, SCPIs have never yielded less than 4% on average”, underlines Eric Cosserat, managing director of Perial. While its average yield fell in 2020 – it was 4.18% compared to 4.40% in 2019 – this investment has proven resilient in the face of the health crisis.
Despite all these assets, nothing foreshadowed such success. Twenty years ago, SCPIs were a fairly confidential niche product, known only to seasoned investors. Insiders who went through the annual reports of management companies and went to subscribe their shares with specialized wealth management advisers… “We were considered as an alternative to direct rental real estate, but had the advantage of avoiding management concerns and offering diversification towards tertiary assets, offices and shops in mind”, recalls Jean-Marc Peter, CEO of Sofidy.
Just over ten years ago, the subprime mortgage crisis helped put SCPIs in the spotlight. The collapse of the financial markets has in fact prompted many savers to turn to more moderate risk investments. On the highest step of the podium: real estate, which ensured a certain stability of the portfolio and offered a higher profitability than that of the funds in euros of life insurance contracts.
Explosion in twenty years
Taking advantage of this enthusiasm for stone, SCPIs have, over the years, collected more and more savings, from an increasingly large public. Not only were more individuals getting involved, but above all they were taking advantage of various innovations.
It has thus become possible to buy shares within the framework of certain life insurance contracts, to subscribe to them on credit, to invest in them in dismemberment or by means of a “savings subscription” (which allows to invest small sums each month, automatically, to buy shares). Online distribution and subscription platforms have also emerged, also contributing to the democratization of this placement.
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