In an effort to offer French investors more investment choices and breath some fresh air into the local property market, the government plan...

In an effort to offer French investors more investment choices and breath some fresh air into the local property market, the government plans to develop a new class of real estate funds. Organisme de Placement Collectif en Immobilier or OPCI will see direct investment in real estate assets – similar to German open-ended real estate funds. “We believe those new real estate funds will have a positive impact on the French real estate market by securing new long-term domestic investors thus lowering the impact of foreign capital outflows in case of a real estate crisis,” said Quoc Giao Tran, global head of real estate at SGAM Alternative Investments. Mr Tan was speaking to a recent press presentation by SGAM, which WealthBriefing attended. “The idea is to provide investors with a direct and liquid access to real estate returns (inflation linked returns with little risk),” said Mr Tran. The French government is currently working on the OPCI project, which may be voted on by the end of the year. Possible regulatory changes and amendments mean that the product could be marketed by the summer of 2006.