The French real estate crowdfunding market is showing incredible health. With 1.45 billion euros raised in 2024 according to ESMA, France remains the leading European crowdfunding market. The platforms are showing sustained growth. “In five years, Bricks.co has demonstrated that it is possible to make real estate investment accessible to everyone, while maintaining standards of performance and rigor.summarizes Cédric O’Neill, founder of Bricks.co, on the occasion of the platform’s five years.
However, the marketing discourse contrasts with the regulators’ figures. L’Financial Markets Authority (AMF) has been sounding the alarm since 2024. As of March 31, 2024, around 30% of ongoing projects were late in payment, even though the average yields reported rose to 10.7%. The Forvis Mazars / France FinTech barometer for the first half of 2025 refines the diagnosis. 20 to 25% of the nominal amount financed in real estate is more than six months late, and 10 to 15% of files are in collective proceedings.
The alarming figures to know before any investment
The study published by the AMF on the market’s performance reveals a worrying dynamic. THE yield average communicated by the platforms climbed to 10.7% at the end of March 2024, compared to 9.1 to 9.6% between 2017 and 2022. This surge is accompanied by a parallel deterioration in the quality of the portfolio. The French regulator explicitly emphasizes that delays have become a central issue, with around 30% current projects showing a payment delay in the first quarter of 2024. The increase in promises served on the market therefore coincides with the increase in actual defaults.
The biannual Forvis Mazars and France FinTech barometer refines the picture based on the most recent data. In the first half of 2025, the real estate segment presents a significant proportion of files in difficulty. 20 to 25% of the nominal amount financed shows more than six months of delayand 10 to 15% of files have already entered into collective procedure with a high risk of permanent losses for subscribers. Figures which demonstrate that the risk is no longer marginal but structural in this market.
The main pitfall lies in the ambiguous communication of platforms on their own performance. Most of them publish statistics on their current portfolioincluding recent projects which have not yet experienced any incident, rather than on their closed vintages, i.e. promotions come to term. This confusion between living outstandings and closed files makes any comparison misleading. The only rate that really matters remains that of the historical default on operations actually completed, at 12, 24 and 36 months, with a breakdown between full repayment, partial repayment after recovery and deadweight loss.
The six questions to ask before clicking on a brick
- Start by asking the historical default rate of the platform on its closed vintages, and not on the entire current portfolio. A clear answer over 12, 24 and 36 months must be communicated directly.
- Next, identify the percentage of projects experiencing late payment, with average amount and duration. On the investor side, the solution lies first in diversification. Delphine Bastian, secretary in Alsace, opened an account on Bricks.co at the beginning of 2026 and invested 2,400 euros in total. “I am currently working on around thirty projects. The risk of loss is lower”she explains. Its vigilance grid personal, projects greater than 8% return and a maximum duration of four years, illustrates the caution become necessary in this market.
- Furthermore, evaluate the costs actually billed to the investor. Platforms rarely display their entire price list in their public communications. You must require an exhaustive list of entry fees, management commissions, administration fees and early exit fees if the platform allows it.
- Also demand to know what the guarantees taken on each project. A mortgage top class protects better than a collateral second rank on company shares.
- Finally, keep in mind the concrete course of the procedure of recovery in case ofunpaid. What is the average time between the first incident and the formal notice, which drives the legal action, at what rate the sums are actually recovered.
- Last point, check that the platform has theECSPR approval under the European crowdfunding framework.
For the record, these three warning signs are the most reliable: an announced yield greater than 12% must always question, opacity on actual defects constitutes a red flag, and aggressive communication on rapid feedback often masks degraded selection quality.
Investing in real estate crowdfunding carries a risk of total or partial loss of the invested capital. Past performance is no guarantee of future performance. The figures cited come from public sources (AMF analysis on market performance published at the beginning of 2024, Forvis Mazars / France FinTech barometer for the first half of 2025, ESMA Market Report Crowdfunding in the EU 2025) and the Bricks.co press release of May 4, 2026. Savers are invited to diversify their investments, to check the approval of the platforms and to only invest amounts for which they do not have short-term need.
