If you invested in French SCPIs (Sociétés Civiles de Placement Immobilier, real estate investment trusts) thinking you owned a slice of stable office buildings that would pay steady dividends and let you cash out whenever you wanted, April 1st brings a nasty surprise. Perial AM, one of France’s major property managers, is suspending capital variability in two of its largest SCPIs, Perial O2 and PF Grand Paris, locking over 51,000 investors into their positions and forcing them to negotiate sales on a frozen secondary market.
This isn’t a drill. It’s the latest sign that France’s supposedly “safe” real estate investment vehicles are facing a liquidity crisis that regulators and managers can no longer ignore.
What Just Changed: From Variable to Fixed Capital
Until now, these SCPIs operated with capital variable (variable capital). If you wanted out, you’d submit a redemption request to the management company, which would buy back your shares at a predetermined price based on net asset value. Simple, predictable, and crucially, guaranteed by the fund itself.
Starting April 1st, that mechanism disappears. Both SCPIs will switch to capital fixe (fixed capital), transforming them into closed-end funds. You’ll still be able to sell, but only if you can find another investor willing to buy your shares, at whatever price you can negotiate. The management company steps back, merely providing a platform to match buyers and sellers.
The practical difference? Your exit price is no longer guaranteed. In a stressed market, buyers will demand discounts. Historically, these discounts can reach 20-40% of the official share price, turning what looked like a conservative investment into a potential capital trap.
The Numbers Behind the Freeze
The scale of this move is significant. Together, Perial O2 (formerly PFO2) and PF Grand Paris manage assets for 51,400 associés (partners), mostly retail investors who thought they were parking money in boring, reliable French commercial property.
The liquidity crisis has been building since late 2023:
- Perial O2: 8.33% of its capitalization, worth millions, sits in the redemption queue
- PF Grand Paris: 5.32% of its capitalization is stuck waiting for buybacks
To manage this, Perial already created fonds de remboursement (redemption funds), selling properties to raise cash. Between 2024 and 2025, they allocated €32 million for Perial O2 and €14 million for PF Grand Paris. The result? Perial O2’s property portfolio shrank from 203 buildings to just 142. PF Grand Paris dropped from 101 to 95.
Despite these asset sales, the redemption queues kept growing. The management company finally pulled the plug on variable capital, canceling all pending redemption requests that aren’t processed by March 31st.
Why This Is Happening: The Office Property Meltdown
French office real estate is in a deep crisis. Remote work, corporate cost-cutting, and rising interest rates have created a perfect storm. Companies are shedding square footage, new leasing has collapsed, and property valuations are falling.
SCPIs focused on offices, like Perial’s two affected funds, are caught in the middle. Investors, spooked by falling valuations and worried about dividend cuts, started redeeming en masse. The funds couldn’t sell buildings fast enough to meet redemptions without fire-sale prices that would hurt remaining investors.
Switching to capital fixe is a defensive move. It stops the bleeding by preventing forced asset sales at distressed prices. For the fund, it’s survival. For investors wanting out, it’s a locked door.
This Isn’t Just Perial: A Sector-Wide Trend
Perial isn’t alone. Industry sources confirm this is part of a broader pattern. Primopierre already suspended capital variability in January 2026. Heavyweights like Praemia REIM and Paref have made similar moves. The entire French SCPI sector, particularly office-focused funds, is being forced to choose between protecting remaining investors or meeting redemption demands.
The numbers across the sector are stark. According to industry data, the stock de parts en attente de rachat (backlog of shares awaiting buyback) reached €2.8 billion by December 2025, representing 3.1% of total SCPI capitalization. Three-quarters of this backlog is concentrated in just 15 SCPIs, mostly office-focused.
What Investors Can Actually Do Now
1. Wait and Hope
Keep your shares and collect dividends. Perial O2 and PF Grand Paris continue operating, managing their remaining properties, and distributing rental income. If the office market recovers, share values might stabilize. But you’re locked in indefinitely.
2. Find a Buyer on the Secondary Market
Perial will provide a matching platform, but you’ll need to negotiate price and terms yourself. Expect lowball offers. Opportunistic buyers know you’re desperate. Discounts of 30-40% from net asset value are common in these situations.
3. Transfer to Insurance Contracts
If you hold shares directly, you might transfer them into an assurance-vie (life insurance) contract, but this doesn’t solve the liquidity problem, it just changes the wrapper.
4. Cut Your Losses
Some investors will accept steep discounts just to exit. This creates a self-reinforcing cycle: more sellers drive prices lower, which spooks more investors, creating more sellers.
The Bigger Lesson: “Safe” Real Estate Was Never Risk-Free
For years, French financial advisors sold SCPIs as low-risk diversifiers, stable, income-producing alternatives to volatile stocks. The pitch worked. Millions of French households poured savings into these funds, often through assurance-vie contracts.
But the SCPI liquidity crisis reveals a fundamental flaw: real estate isn’t liquid, and funds that promise easy redemption are vulnerable to runs. When everyone heads for the exit at once, the math breaks down.
Many investors learn this too late. One investor, who bought Perial O2 shares at launch in 2009 through a financial advisor, now calls it a “beautiful mistake.” The product was marketed as a simple way to access real estate, but the fine print about liquidity risk was buried in hundreds of pages of documentation.
This experience mirrors what many French investors discover when they try to build portfolios through traditional bank advisors. Products are sold based on past performance and simple narratives, while risks are downplayed.
What This Means for French Investment Strategy
- SCPIs aren’t savings accounts. Treat them as long-term, illiquid investments. Only allocate money you won’t need for 5-10 years.
- Diversification matters. Don’t concentrate your portfolio in office-focused SCPIs. Consider diversified funds, logistics, or healthcare properties, but even these face pressures.
- Read the prospectus. The ability to suspend capital variability is always disclosed. It’s not a hidden trap, it’s a feature that only activates during stress.
- Consider alternatives. For liquid real estate exposure, look at OPCI (Organisme de Placement Collectif Immobilier) or REITs through a PEA (Plan d’Épargne en Actions, stock savings plan) if you want tax advantages. But these carry their own risks.
The Perial case also highlights why many sophisticated investors are rethinking their entire French investment approach. When traditional products show their limits, building a diversified, liquid portfolio becomes more attractive, even if it means accepting market volatility.
The Bottom Line: A Wake-Up Call, Not a Death Sentence
Perial’s move is painful for trapped investors, but it’s not necessarily a death sentence for the funds. By stopping forced sales, management can wait for better market conditions, potentially preserving long-term value. For investors who don’t need immediate cash, staying put might be the least bad option.
But the trust is broken. The idea that SCPIs are “safe” is dead. These are complex, illiquid, cyclical investments that can lock you out when you most want out.
If you’re considering SCPIs today, understand you’re buying into a closed-end structure from day one. The capital variability you think you’re getting might disappear tomorrow. And if you’re already trapped in Perial O2 or PF Grand Paris, your best move is probably to sit tight, collect dividends, and hope the office market recovers before you need the cash.
The French real estate investment landscape just got a lot more honest, and a lot less liquid.
