In October 2022, MeilleureSCPI published on its blog Le classement des SCPI prometteuses 2022 des Victoires du Particulier [The 2022 ranking of promising SCPIs from the Victoires du Particulier]⁷. By Particulier, read the magazine founded in 1949, owned since 2009 by the French daily Le Figaro, and now mostly a sub-section of LeFigaro.fr. The print edition, which sold half a million copies in the 2000s, reportedly sells less than half that today.⁸

The distributor promotes this league table as a partner of the ranking, alongside Rock-n-data, another platform for professionals that belongs to the same owner as MeilleureSCPI.

For once, the methodology is spelled out and the three SCPIs (ActivImmo, Neo, Eurion) look coherent, even if you can still sense a bonus for yield. But it’s an openly stated methodology, and yield is obviously still a goal.

So what about the years before? Well… For this one, as for the others we’ll get to, it was very hard to track down past rankings. Most have simply vanished. Some don’t even seem to have been published in full, to the point that you wonder what they could possibly be for. You barely find a few traces, with incomplete rankings.

In 2020, there’s a trace (still for the same ranking) of Corum Origin, Accès Valeur Pierre📉⁹, Novapierre 1. In 2022, it’s a full-on “everybody gets a trophy” party, with 20 SCPIs rewarded out of the hundred or so vehicles in existence: Cristal Rente, Novapierre Allemagne📉, Foncière Remusat📉, Actipierre 1📉, Actipierre 2📉¹⁰, Corum Origin, Épargne Pierre, Cap Foncières et Territoire, Corum XL, Immorente, LF Opportunité Immo, Foncières des Praticiens, Logipierre 3, Atream Hôtels, Épargne Foncière📉, LF Grand Paris Patrimoine📉, PF Grand Paris📉, LF Europimmo📉, Unidelta📉. That’s half of them bad recommendations, at a time when the market was already turning.

How, in October 2022¹¹, with rates already climbing fast, can you put Épargne Foncière📉, PF Grand Paris📉 and Grand Paris Patrimoine📉 on the office podium, while stating that 50% of the score is “outlook”, meaning “potential capital gain, stability of dividends paid, of the financial occupancy rate (TOF), of retained earnings, and level of debt”?

In September 2023, the lunatic league table even crowned AEW Paris Commerces📉¹², even though the manager had cut the price of most of its funds during the year, the fund was born from a merger in which some vehicles were adrift, the secondary market was saturated, operating liabilities were rising, the realisation value was collapsing (-8% in 3 years), the reconstitution value had gone from €429 to €395 in 3 years, the TOP was collapsing to 90% and the TOF was below 95%. And the same story in 2024: despite the thunderous falls, the same SCPI was crowned¹³ with a score of 16.64/20, way ahead of Cristal Rente (9.70/20, 6th, after scoring 11.64/20 and 3rd place in 2023).

Clearly, Le Particulier is well aware of the problem. So much so that all the 2022 rankings have disappeared. To find the awards for Épargne Foncière, Grand Paris Patrimoine or PF Grand Paris, you have to dig through web articles¹⁴. Perhaps because Le Particulier also recommends Pierre Capitale, Primovie📉, Accès Valeur Pierre📉, Rivoli Avenir Patrimoine📉, Accimmo📉, PFO2, Eurovalys📉 or Interpierre📉 (now Hexa) through good scores¹⁵.

The 2022 links now redirect to the 2023 ranking, and the 2022 articles have vanished from the site entirely.

These awards are regularly showcased by asset managers (for SCPIs, life insurance savings policies, French retirement plans, etc.).

The AEW Paris Commerces📉 page on the AEW Patrimoine website

For example, the website of Primopierre📉, the SCPI that has caused its investors the biggest losses, displays a 1st prize at the 2020 Grand Prix des SCPI awarded by Mieux Vivre Votre Argent, and the 2021 Prix de la Performance SCPI Bureaux à capital variable [Performance Prize, variable-capital office SCPIs] (phew) at the Pyramides de la Gestion de Patrimoine, run by Investissement Conseils.

Here again, it’s almost impossible to find the league tables, which don’t seem to be published anywhere, except by the winners. But I managed to get hold of the 2021 Investissement Conseils ranking, which runs to no fewer than 32 pages and rewards more than a hundred players.

Download “Investissement Conseils Pyramides Gestion Patrimoine 2021” (in French)

Another asset management boss¹⁶, who manages half a billion in property, offers an explanation:

“Everybody wins! Most trophies have 20 or 30 different categories to make sure every company wins at least one.”

In 2021 at Investissement Conseils, we learn in particular that La Financière de l’Échiquier won the Pyramide des conseillers [Advisers’ Pyramid] in place of H2O AM😅. On the innovation side, not a word about the likes of Moniwan, which lets you sell products directly with cashback, but rather the same old fee-laden products eligible for one wrapper or another. On the SCPI side, BNP Reim walks off with two prizes, including one for Investipierre📉, Corum takes one for Origin, and Primonial wins one for Primopierre📉 and one for Capimmo📉. Its SCI, another kind of property fund, which would go on to collapse in September 2023. Eleven other prizes are handed out, on top of the 2nd and 3rd places. Not exactly a visionary ranking.

And not only are the chosen ones legion… so are the rankings. On top of those already mentioned, there are:

• Les Couples de l’Audace (Agefi, a financial newspaper), which require distributors to submit an application. In the ten or so categories, several are shortlisted, but only one wins. In 2022, for example, you find Nalo or Ritchee among the distributors, who had nominated Yomoni, and others whose names don’t seem out of place;
• Les Tops d’Or (Tout sur mes finances), which in 2022 rewarded Épargne Foncière📉, Aestiam Pierre📉, PF Hospitalité Europe📉, LF Grand Paris Patrimoine📉, PF Grand Paris📉 or PFO📉. But in 2021 you also found Primovie, PFO2📉, Accimmo📉, Eurovalys📉 and Primopierre📉. Faced with the slump in 2023, “communication” categories were created to hand prizes to 6 La Française SCPIs (innovation) or 6 Sofidy SCPIs (transparency), while showcasing the offices of LF Grand Paris Patrimoine📉 (-17.75% on the unit price, 92.5% TOF, 89.80% TOP);
• Victoires de la Pierre Papier (Gestion de fortune), which rewarded PFO2📉 or Eurovalys📉 in 2023, but also Accès Valeur Pierre📉, PF Grand Paris📉 or Sofipierre📉 in 2022;
• Trophées secteur de l'immobilier (SIATI);
• Palmarès de l’immobilier (VitrineMedia, MySweetImmo);
• Les corbeilles (Mieux Vivre Votre Argent), and so many more.

So why hand out so many prizes?