Victims of their success, real estate investment companies (SCPI) must look beyond our borders to invest the money collected from savers. These investment products acquire and manage rental properties and pay unitholders their share of the rents due to them.
In 2019, the market attracted 8.6 billion euros in capital. A record. The Covid-19 pandemic slightly dampened the enthusiasm of savers in 2020, but SCPIs returned to dynamic collection in 2021, draining 7.4 billion euros in savings.
If the money is flowing in, it is mainly because year after year, SCPIs deliver a good return: 4.45% on average in 2021, according to the French Association of Real Estate Investment Companies (Aspim). “When you have a successful product, it attracts a lot of collections that you must invest without degrading the profitability of the product, points out Frédéric Puzin, President of Corum. This is why, from 2011, with our SCPI Corum Origin, we gave ourselves the latitude to invest internationally. This allows us to have greater market depth and more solutions to meet our investment strategy. »
This approach has been emulated: in 2021, a third of SCPI acquisitions were made abroad, according to Aspim; and out of seven new SCPIs launched on the market last year, three were 100% invested abroad, explains Linxea in a note from its January SCPI Observatory: AEW Diversification Germany (AEW Ciloger), Cœur d’ Europe (Sogenial), Sofidy Europe Invest (Sofidy).
Supports not exempt from risks
But the potential for development is significant, especially since the real estate, acquired in the past, is still very Franco-French. “Only 15% of SCPI assets were invested abroad at the end of 2020, which represents 9 billion euros, distributed 43% in Germany, 18% in the Netherlands and 9% in Belgium, to quote main countries »says Marc Sartori, founder of the analysis company Deeptinvest.
Investors opting for these products invest in markets that are inaccessible directly and can diversify their assets. “This makes it possible to statistically reduce the risk because not all countries are in the same economic, real estate or demographic cycle, emphasizes Jean-Marc Peter, CEO of Sofidy, of the Tikehau Capital group. Properties purchased in Germany ten years ago, for example, have benefited from an increase in rents twice as large as in France. »
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