Life insurance and real estate have formed a winning combination in recent years. Stone-paper funds indeed offered a stable and attractive return, with limited risk-taking. For the most cautious savers, it was a natural path to diversification.
Due to this growth, real estate units of account represented a little less than 10% of outstanding units of account at the end of 2022. Initially driven by real estate investment companies (SCPI), life insurance collections have gradually benefited civil companies (SC) and real estate companies (SCI). The dynamic was even very strong in 2022, since the outstanding amount of these supports increased by 33% over one year. As of June 30, it was close to 27 billion euros, according to the French Association of Real Estate Investment Companies.
Among the advantages of civil societies: their regular valorization. Unlike SCPIs, these supports generally produce a weekly, fortnightly or monthly net asset value. As a result, SCs and SCIs reflected the fall in real estate prices much more quickly than SCPIs.
Thus, of the 48 media for which Quantalys has provided us with performance since the start of the year, half show a result less than or equal to zero. Among those that are doing the best, we find in particular thematic products, specialized in health or life annuity, for example.
Capimmo (managed by Primonial REIM France) is the benchmark in the sector: created in 2007, the SCI was worth more than 7 billion euros at the end of June and it is referenced in 169 life insurance contracts, according to Funds360 [un site de données de financières]. However, she has a particularly worrying fate. Since the start of the year, the SCI has shown a decrease of 11.58% (as of November 17).
Surprise
A violent fall while the fund has distributed each year for more than ten years a performance of between 2.50% and 5% net of fees (excluding those linked to the contract). This decline did not escape investors, who massively offloaded: over the first nine months of the year, the SCI recorded 666 million euros in outflows. Adding to this the drop in value, its capitalization fell by almost 1.5 billion euros!
However, in a civil society, it is not the savers who are directly involved, but the insurers who distribute it. In a way, they invest wholesale and then resell at retail via life insurance.
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