Inflows to unlisted real estate funds were €2.2 billion in the third quarter of 2021
ASPIM and IEIF have published subscription statistics[1] for SCPIs, retail OPCIs and SCIs (non-trading real estate companies) in the third quarter of 2021. Inflows to the three main categories of real estate funds accessible to the general public were €2.2 billion during the third quarter, a volume that is down 24% compared to the second quarter of 2021. Since the beginning of the year, total inflows to retail funds amount to €7.7 billion.
According to Jean-Marc Coly, President of ASPIM, "The data collected by ASPIM and IEIF confirm that savers' confidence in real estate investments remained strong in the third quarter. Moreover, less than a year after real estate funds became eligible for the SRI label, we are delighted to see that 20% of the market for retail real estate funds has already had its environmental, social and governance approach recognised by the government label.“
11% of quarterly inflows for SRI-labelled funds
In the third quarter, SRI-labelled funds captured 11% of total net inflows to retail funds as a whole. At 30 September, they accounted for 20% of the capitalisation of retail vehicles, and 28 real estate funds (including 9 SCPIs, 7 retail OPCIs and 4 SCIs) had an SRI label.
Inflows to SCPIs amount to €5.2 billion since the beginning of the year
In the third quarter of 2021, net inflows to SCPIs amounted to €1.5 billion, down 21% from the second quarter. In the first nine months of the year, inflows to SCPIs were €5.2 billion, an amount up 15% compared to the same period in 2020, but 15% lower than the first nine months of 2019 (which was a record year for SCPIs).
SCPIs mainly invested in "offices" accounted for 44% of net inflows to SCPIs in the third quarter. Next, SCPIs mainly invested in "health and education" (25%) outperformed "diversified"[2] strategy SCPIs (20%). SCPIs with predominantly “logistics and business premises” and “residential” each captured 4% of inflows, while “shop” SCPIs captured 3% of the total.
Retail OPCIs recorded limited inflows despite rising performances
In the third quarter, inflows to retail OPCIs were €33 million compared to €45 million in the second quarter. Net subscription volumes remain historically low despite steadily improving performances since the beginning of the year[3].
Unit-linked SCIs account for 31% of annual inflows to unlisted real estate funds
Unit-linked SCIs recorded €633 million in net subscriptions in the third quarter, compared to €878 million in the previous quarter, down 28% quarter-on-quarter. Since the beginning of the year, the 31 SCIs, managed by some 15 management companies, have received inflows of €2.4 billion, i.e. almost 31% of the annual inflows to retail real estate funds.
[1] The performance, distribution and investment data of the SCPIs will be detailed in a separate publication by the IEIF and the ASPIM.
[2] According to the new classification proposed by ASPIM, a real estate strategy is qualified as “diversified” if the fund targets at least three different asset classes without any one class exceeding 50% of the overall allocation.
[3] +2.6% from 31/12/2020 to 15/09/2021 according to the bimonthly IEIF OPCI General Public index.