SCPI: Why Your Place in the Withdrawal Line Might Seem to Be Moving Back

In open-end real estate investment trusts (SCPIs), selling one’s shares means taking a place in a waiting list. An AMF mediation sheds light on a case in which an investor saw his place in the queue move backward, as well as the procedural adjustments intended to remedy the situation.
 

Getting your money back from an SCPI is not an immediate process, and the withdrawal process can sometimes hold surprises. Real estate investment trusts (SCPIs) allow individuals to invest in real estate without directly purchasing a home or office: they hold shares and typically receive income from rent. When a shareholder wishes to exit, they request the redemption of their shares from the management company. In a variable-capital SCPI, this request is recorded in a chronological register: each investor is placed in a queue, and requests are processed in the order they are received, provided there are enough new subscribers to buy back the shares of those exiting. 

When the fundraising process slows down, wait times increase. A investor may then find that their position in line has, apparently, moved backward—a situation at the heart of an AMF mediation reported in early June. The case sheds light on little-known rules and the expected improvements in transparency, which are useful for any shareholder who may one day consider selling their shares.
 

A Falling Rank: A Investor’s Confusion
Mr. X had requested the redemption of his shares on March 18, 2025. Upon reviewing his management company’s quarterly reports, he had estimated that approximately 43,900 shares were ahead of his in the registry. A few months later, in August 2025, the management company informed him that 52,000 shares would ultimately be processed before his. This was difficult to accept: how could his place in line have moved backward when requests are supposed to be processed in chronological order? 

The explanation lies in a crucial distinction. Some applications filed before his were incomplete: they were listed in the registry, but were not yet enforceable due to a lack of supporting documents. These incomplete files, which were entered upon receipt, were not included in the published figures as applications actually awaiting enforcement. 

Once those applications were processed, they regained their original ranking, since they had been received before Mr. X’s. It was therefore not a more recent application that had moved ahead of him, but rather the processing of older applications, which had previously been invisible in the statistics he relied on to estimate his position.
 

“Registered” does not mean “enforceable,” and the rule is evolving
This distinction is important for every shareholder to understand. A withdrawal request may be validly received as long as it includes the shareholder’s name, the relevant SCPI, the number of shares, and the requested price. However, in order for the request to be processed, the management company may need to obtain additional documents: a bank identification statement, proof of address, or a certificate of ownership in the case of an estate. As long as these documents are missing, the request is listed in the registry but is not counted among those ready to be processed, hence the discrepancy between the perceived ranking and the actual ranking. 

This practice could foster a sense of injustice: an applicant who had submitted an incomplete application could, by completing it later, retain their original ranking, to the detriment of those who had submitted a complete application from the start. The management company has therefore revised its procedure: from now on, an incomplete application must be completed within thirty days to retain its original ranking; otherwise, that ranking will be recalculated based on the date the missing documents are received. 

Putting together a complete file as soon as the withdrawal request is made prevents the loss of quarters, and estimating one’s ranking based solely on quarterly statements remains unreliable as long as files that are still being finalized can be reinserted into the queue. The liquidity of an open-end SCPI depends on fund raising, which is by nature variable; this means that such an investment must be viewed over the long term, and supporting documentation must be anticipated, particularly when the shares are part of an estate. 

This episode also serves as a reminder that the figures reported on the backlog do not tell the whole story: the volume of pending applications published at a given moment may increase as previous cases are resolved, even if no new applications have been filed in the meantime. The 30-day rule adopted by the management company promotes greater transparency by aligning the ranking with the date on which an application actually becomes actionable. 

When managing an investment portfolio, it is therefore best to treat a withdrawal request as a process that requires preparation rather than improvisation: gather all the necessary documents before submitting the request, keep a record of the acknowledgments of receipt, and ask the management company for estimated processing times at the time of the request, rather than relying on information from statements, which can be misleading.