Press release

ASPIM and the IEIF are publishing the yearly figures for the two main real estate investment funds for retail investors. SCPIs (closed-end funds) and "retail" OPCIs (open-ended funds) received over 7.2 billion € in 2018. The total capitalisation of funds increased by 4.6% over the year to reach 70 billion € by the end of 2018. By staying on top of the volumes of inflow and investment, SCPI managers succeeded in maintaining attractive distribution rates, close to those of 2017.

Key figures for 2018

Commercial and residential real estate SCPIs

•  175 SCPIs managed by 31 management companies
• Capitalisation: 55.38 billion €
• Net inflows: 5.11 billion €
• Transactions on the secondary market: 1.1 billion € (which is 1.97% of the capitalisation)
• Non-compensated withdrawals  : 32 million €
• Gross inflows : 6.48 billion € (which is 11.7% of the capitalisation)
• Increase in capital : 5.38 billion € for 78 SCPIs in 30 management companies                                                           

"Retail" OPCIs:

• 18 "retail" OPCIs managed by 12 management companies
• Net assets: 15.14 billion €
• Net inflow: 2.14 billion €

Net inflow

• SCPIs

Unsurprisingly SCPIs saw a decline of 19.4% in net inflows compared to 2017, which was a year that saw an exceptional volume of investments. However, retail investors interest in SCPIs did not diminish in 2018 which saw a net inflow of 5 billion €.

SCPIs invested in offices realised a little less than half of this inflow, ahead of diversified SCPIs (21%), specialised SCPIs (16%), SCPIs invested in shops (7.5%) and SCPIs invested in residential property  (2.6%).

• "Retail" OPCIs

"Retail" OPCIs basically distribute investment via life insurance contracts and in 2018 they registered a total of 2.14 billion € in subscriptions. Driven by some significant capitalisations the market recovered after the inflow highs of over 4 billion € seen in 2016 and 2017. Three new vehicles were launched in 2018 and two new management companies enteredthe market. 10 of the 18 retail OPCIs active in 2018 saw their net annual inflow increase over 2017 levels.

Investments

In Europe, SCPIs made 6.2 billion € worth of acquisitions in 2018, against 852 million € of disposals. Office space is still the leading type of assets acquired (64%) ahead of shops (17%). In other categories, health centres lead (6%) and then hotels (4.5%) residential (4.1%), business premises and warehouses (2%).

Concerning localisation, investments in other European countries account for 30.8% of volume (of which 42.5% was in Germany), well ahead of investments in French regions (26.6%). Paris area accounted for a concentration of acquisitions, 42.6%, mostly outside Paris as the capital only attracted 11.3% of investment volumes.

While offices remain the leading investment focus, the trend towards diversifying investment strategies persisted in 2018. This pattern was substantiated by the targets selected by the seven SCPI yield funds launched during the course of the year: shops, socially responsible investment, residential, mountain resort hotels, regional assets

Capitalisation

• SCPIs

The capitalisation of SCPIs reached the sum of 55.38 billion € on 31 December 2018, a rise of 10.1%. This capitalisation particularly concerns commercial  real estate SCPIs (51.60 billion €) and added to this are the residential real estate SCPIs (3.78 billion €).

• "Retail" OPCIs

Net assets of "Retail" OPCIs rose to 15.14 billion € by 31 December 2018, an increase of 16.3%.

Secondary market

The value of shares exchanged on the secondary market in 2018 reached 1.10 billion €, which is 1.97 % of SCPIs capitalisation. The secondary market focusses on variable capital SCPIs (87%).

Performances

• SCPI yield funds

In 2018, SCPIs succeeded in maintaining an attractive market value distribution of +4.35% (against +4.43% in 2017). This level of earnings distributed by the SCPIs allowed them to release a risk premium which has stabilised comfortably (+3.64 points in relation to 10-year state bonds). Taking into account the weighted average price increase in SCPI shares (+0.82%), the global performance was +5.17% for the year.

Over the long term (June 2008 to December 2018) the annualised global performance of SCPI yield funds[1] reached 6% with reduced volatility at 4.4%.

• "Retail" OPCIs

Over 2018, "Retail" OPCIs[2]  showed a current yield of +1.2%. The moving average price of shares in 2018 showed a drop of -0.4% – for the first time since the end of 2016 – impacted by the negative performance of European listed real estate in 2018 (-15.9%[3]). In fact, the exposure of "retail" OPCIs to listed real estate companies on average represented 12% of net assets at the end of 2017. The current discount of prices on the net assets of listed real estate companies raises hopes of a recovery in market values in the early part of the year.

Over the long term (June 2008 to December 2018) the annualised global performance of "Retail" OPCIs reached 4.9% with reduced volatility at 2.3%.

Frédéric Bôl, ASPIM Chairman, reports: "The activity of unlisted real estate investment funds during 2018 has been maintained at a steady level. We have reasons to be cheerful regarding the commercial dynamism of these SCPI and OPCI funds which represent a long term investment that is particularly suited to private individuals' preparation for retirement. But we must not forget that these investments in the tertiary sector (offices, shops, business premises, depots, hotels, special residences for students and senior citizens) in Europe or in France are also investments in the workplace of over a million people. So, in order to raise awareness among elected politicians and local authorities about the economic contribution made in their regions by unlisted real estate fund (SCPIs and OPCIs) ASPIM has decided go on a road trip around France in 2019."