French throw weight behind EPRA's EU REIT group

The European Public Real Estate Association (EPRA) announced on Tuesday that the listed French property industry has decided to back EPRA's campaign to lobby for a tax-efficient pan-European real estate investment trust (REIT).

EPRA CEO Philip Charls revealed to PropertyEU during the MIPIM property fair in Cannes earlier in March that his association was very likely to set up a EU-REIT campaign to champion the interested of the listed property sector in Europe rather than join the existing EU-REIT group, established last year by the European Property Federation, the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and other organisations.

Now, Jean-Paul Dumortier, President of La Fédération des Socíetés Immobillères et Foncières (FSIF), France's real estate securities association, has come out in favour of EPRA's approach. Speaking at a recent FSIF/EPRA seminar in Paris, Dumortier said: 'We believe that EPRA is best placed to lead the campaign in Brussels to establish an EU REIT, because of the strong support they have given to the development of REITs at the national level in most of the key European markets. We also think that the French SIIC (REIT) regime has the most attractive investment characteristics and could be the best model for an EU REIT.'

In a statement on Tuesday, EPRA noted that about 12 of the FSIF's 48 member companies are also members of EPRA.

Dumortier urged other French real estate firms to join the European association to boost its lobbying effort at the EU level in Brussels. 'We need EPRA as the interlocutor with the EU Commission to tackle areas such as double-taxation and regulation. EPRA has already proved they are technically the best qualified with their work in areas such as the Best Practices Guidelines for European real estate companies and with the FTSE EPRA/NAREIT indices, which are the performance benchmarks for the industry,' he added.

Dumortier said the French SIIC represented a very flexible regime for investors, with no bar on development, realistic shareholding requirements, no limits on leverage and opportunities to include some non-real estate activities in the REIT tax shell.

EPRA's Charls told the seminar that the association is dedicated to expanding the listed real estate industry in Europe. EPRA now represents 220 companies with EUR 300bn in assets, or roughly 85% of the market. 'We want to help the development of REITs in those European markets, such as Finland, where they don’t exist, and also encourage the establishment of an EU REIT. But we need to carefully calibrate our efforts in Brussels to ensure that measures taken at the pan-European level don’t damage solid national REIT structures such as the SIIC regime in France,' he said.