The year started on the air of 2024 for civil real estate investment companies (SCPI). As of January 1, the Frenchwoman remained her customers at the end of the holidays to announce a drop in prices from the shares of several of her historic SCPIs. In the following days, Praemia and then Swiss Life followed suit. These real estate funds have been in turmoil since the rise in interest rates that occurred in 2022. “These decreases should be more marginal in 2025 and limited to vehicles already identified for the most part,” said Pierre Garin, director of the Linxea real estate center, in his SCPI observatory.
A less pink assessment than announced
Investors quickly looked at 2024 yields of their funds, the SCPIs being above all subscribed for the regular remuneration they provide. The professional association of the sector, the ASPIM, has just entered the suspense by announcing an average distribution rate of 4.72 % for 2024, 0.20 points to that of last year. Unfortunately, the assessment is less pink than this figure does not reveal it. “The average gross dividend served by the SCPIs in 2024 decreased by 3 % compared to 2023”, underlines the ASPIM in its study. Overall, 43 % of SCPIs reduced their distribution to euros. The rate of return is indeed calculated by bringing the dividends paid to the partners by the price of share on January 1 of the year concerned (2024 for the rate 2024). “The increase of 0.2 point is explained by the 4.9 % drop in the average share price in 2023,” continues the ASPIM. Some supports even display sensitive declines, like Aestiam Cap’hebergimmo (Aestiam) or Pierval Santé (Euryale AM), whose yields each drop around 20 %.
In detail, certain elements, however, make it possible to be optimistic. Not all SCPIs are housed in the same brand, with an average yield that is 6 %. It is in this category that we find almost all of the new SCPIs which have been created for two years. The year 2024 will have been particularly prolific with no less than 17 new supports launched on the market. “2025 promises to be crucial for these young SCPIs, who will have to stand out to quickly gain market share and reach a critical size, in an ultra -competitive context”, points Pierre Garin.
Communication artifices
The market context, when they were created, allowed them to get out of very attractive yields out of 2024, sometimes exceeding 10 %. “The new SCPIs clearly have a calendar advantage because they can constitute their heritage by acquiring real estate with a return that had not been seen for ten to fifteen years,” said Jérémy Orféo, pattern of the Welle wealth management consulting firm.
Other phenomena explain the boosted rates displayed by some of them. Starting with the time of enjoyment: between the moment when the investor acquires shares of SCPI and that where he can claim to affect dividends, it flows for a variable time depending on the products but most often from six months for recent products. By quickly investing the money collected, the SCPIs can start to perceive rents that they do not need to immediately donate to these new carriers. They can thus more generously pay the ancients. The Iroko company has measured the impact of this criterion on the rate of return of its SCPI, Iroko Zen: with three months of time of enjoyment, this fund served 7.32 % return in 2024, against 8.49 % if it had risen to six months.
In addition, some managers have communicated on annualized rates, while their SCPI had only a few months of seniority. “A practice which had however been prohibited by the ASPIM,” recalls Pierre Garin. Others calculate the 2024 yield by bringing the dividends served at a price from a “sponsor” share, that is to say a price for the decay reserved for the first investors. So many maneuvers that should be well deciphered to analyze the real yield of a SCPI.