The total assets of Italian real estate funds are less than a quarter of the net inflows of European funds alone. If at the end of 2002 the Made in Italy funds will reach assets of approximately 3 billion euros, net collections in Europe should reach 13.5 billion euros and total assets 116.8 billion euros. Leading the European real estate fund industry is Germany, with 48,800 million euros of capitalisation, followed by Great Britain with 43,500 million euros. At a distance, France, with a total of 10.8 billion euros.
This, in summary, is the photograph taken by Scenari Immobiliari in the recent study 'Real estate funds in Europe and Italy', a survey which will be updated periodically. Here, in more detail, are the characteristics of the most advanced markets than ours. The United Kingdom. In Great Britain, real estate funds are defined as authorized or unauthorized property units. The former were introduced by the Financial Service Act of 1991 while the latter have already existed since the second half of the 1960s: while the former (Aputs) also allow savers to purchase shares, the latter allow access only to institutional investors and tax-exempt funds, such as pension funds. The minimum size of the fund is set at five million pounds, equal to over eight million euros. The fund must have between 20 and 80% of its capital invested in real estate, up to 35% in government bonds and up to 5% in other forms of investments. Other investment constraints include the fact that a single property cannot be worth more than 25% of the assets and that no more than 10% must consist of rented properties. The largest fund is the Schroder Exempt Put, with over 6,539 million euros in assets, followed by the Mercury Property Fund, with a capitalization of 4,540 million euros. The top ten funds represent 74.1% of the total assets of English funds. As for returns, the best in 2001 was the Lazard fund (7.6%), followed by the Schroder fund (7.5%). Overall, the average return was 6.2%, with the Gulliver Development Put hitting a low of 2.4%. Germany. German funds have existed since the 1950s and follow the Anglo-Saxon trust scheme. They are available in both closed and open forms. The latter is the most widespread, with a breakdown depending on the type of investor (private or institutional). The main operators are almost all banks, both with reference to open-ended and closed-end funds. Open-end funds have a legal structure similar to that of Italian funds, but the units are not listed on a regulated market, as happens in Italy. Open-end funds must invest their assets in at least ten properties, each with a purchase value not exceeding 15% of the fund's assets. Liquidity can even reach 49%, a high limit which is justified by the open nature and the need to be able to liquidate shares on request. The development of the German market took place mainly in the 1990s. The most important fund is the DEGI, with a capitalization of 7.7 billion euros, equal to 16.1% of the total assets of the funds. The top five funds, overall, hold approximately 65% of total assets. The average return of open-ended funds was, in 2001, 6.2%, with a minimum of 5.4% for the iii-Fonds nr.3 (Hvb) and a maximum of 7.2% for the aforementioned Degi fund. France. The French funds take the name of Sociétés civilis de placement immobiliéres (SCPI) and are 85% owned by savers. There are 277 SCPIs, the majority of which are specialized. The most important is managed by Crédit Agricole and boasts a capitalization of 1.6 billion euros, equal to 13.9% of the total. Collection fell from 1995 to 1997 due to the crisis in the French real estate sector, then rose again until 2000 and fell again in the last period. The highest return in 2001 was 6% (by Crédit Agricole) and the average return of the top six managers was 5.5 percent. Going down to small managers, the yield drops to an average of 3.8%.
source: Real Estate Observatory
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