Real estate and infrastructure financing in line with the growth of the financial transaction market.

In an article for Le Monde, academics Antoine Gironnet and Ludovic Albert describe the irresistible growth of the 'property asset management' sector, which now accounts for €11 trillion in assets globally.

It appears that real estate and infrastructure have become a target for financing in the financial services market. This process is not new, an example being Paris during the Hosmann era, but today it is taking on new dimensions thanks to the deployment of "property asset management".

This term refers to the ascendancy over the last twenty years of investment funds and land companies that channel savings into the construction and development of cities. They attract investment''households and institutional investors (insurance companies, pension funds, sovereign wealth funds), which are then invested in work, consumer and residential rental properties.

By turning real estate into financial assets, management companies maximize rental income for the benefit of their clients, allowing them to diversify their typical investments, such as government bonds.

Although the funds and companies remain little known to the general public, they own a multitude of addresses: shopping centers, skyscrapers and office complexes, student dormitories and senior housing, and logistics platforms. Analysts estimate the assets of these funds globally at €11 trillion as of 2021.

From 2012 to 2022, these market players have invested an average of 25 billion euros per year, equivalent to seventy Stade Français stadiums. The growth of this industry varies across territories and sectors of activity. In Paris, the share of these funds in the ownership of office buildings ranges from 50% at the city level to almost 100% in the central business district. At the same time, their presence in housing remains very small nationally, despite the recent revival of interest in this type of investment.