For two years, a new generation of SCPIs has displayed distribution rates that would have seemed extravagant ten years ago. 10%, 12%, sometimes 15%. In 2025, Wemo One paid the equivalent of 15.27% for its first full year. Reason paid 12.90%, Iroko Atlas 9.41%. However, at the same time, SCPIs posted an average return of 4.91% in 2025, according to ASPIM. Enough to attract savers looking for regular and high income. But a high return one year says nothing about the strength of the SCPI over time…
“What I have observed in recent years is a race for the distribution rate. Investors come for that »notes Stephan Besnainou, commercial director of Aroxys. He thus wishes “put the church back in the center of the village”by encouraging savers to go “look at what’s inside” of these SCPIs. In other words, examine the company’s assets, “the real estate assets that make up the SCPI”before relying on the percentage displayed in the window.
Very recent SCPIs
The majority of two-digit SCPIs are recent structureslaunched since 2020. And this is no coincidence: the first years of life of an SCPI create a favorable accounting effect which mechanically inflates the apparent distribution rate. When an SCPI raises funds, it has a period of use before paying the first rent to subscribers, generally three to six months. During this time, the collected cash is invested. Above all, in its first years, the SCPI has not yet integrated all of the full management costs – without forgetting that its real estate portfolio is recent, therefore little exposed to work or lease renegotiations.
Result: the ratio of dividends paid to share price is artificially raised at start-up, before normalizing once the SCPI reaches its cruising speed. This phenomenon cannot be a sign of lasting outperformance.
This is also the opinion of Benjamin Le Baut, Managing Director at the management company Alderan. It notably distributes Comète, a diversified SCPI which had a good launch, with a 10.62% return in its first year. Internally, they wondered if serving this rate was not entering into this “war” on yield: “Then, we said to ourselves, the vehicle is there to be distributed to those who trusted us. It would not be logical not to serve this yield. But we tried to be educational, to explain that this 10.62% was not intended to be renewed ».
He thus insists on the fact that we must look at the overall performance of an SCPI: “Communication focused solely on the distribution rate fis also wrong with the pedagogy which would like us not to look only at this figure ».
Go look behind the returns
The distribution rate displayed is calculated on the basis of dividends paid divided by the share price on January 1. But this rate says nothing about the internal rate of return on the assets held, that is to say what the buildings in the portfolio actually generate. Especially since young SCPIs which collect collections have the possibility of building up a reserve, but also of distributing more than what the assets actually bring in, in drawing on this treasury. “We cannot, in the long term, distribute more than we receive”assures Stephan Besnainou.
Fortunately, “SCPIs are obliged to inform investors of the performance of their assets”he emphasizes. Here are the documents and indicators to review before subscribing.
- THE quarterly newsletterpublished obligatorily by all SCPIs, which details the composition of the real estate stock: types of assets (offices, shops, health, logistics, etc.), geographical location, list of main tenants and their weight in rents. You can then compare the return on assets with the distribution rate.
- THE financial occupancy rate (TOF) indicates the share of space actually rented and generating rent: below 85%, it is a warning signal.
- THE internal rate of return (IRR) over five and ten years reflects the real performance of the SCPI, including revaluation of shares.
- There reconstitution value reveals whether the share price is higher than the actual assets.
- And the postpone againexpressed in days of distribution, measures reserves (60 to 90 days is a good sign). It allows us to understand whether the dividends paid are supported by the rents collected or by a cash cushion which will run out.
- Finally, management feeswhich oscillate between 10 and 15% of the rents collected according to the SCPI, directly reduce the net return distributed.
