Estelle Dautry's article in Le Parisien.
Release date: Tuesday, February 27, 2024.
Diversify your investments and supporting agriculture . That's one This option often starts at just a few hundred euros and can go very high. You could invest in a farm near you, or a few cows on the other side of France. Here's an overview of the possibilities.
Investing in land
Under a leasehold system that allows for the collection of rent, or in the form of shares in a real estate investment company, several options exist. Hectarea offers the opportunity to invest in land to help farmers get established. A first plot of 26.7 hectares has been financed in Nouvelle- Aquitaine. €175,000 was raised from 91 investors.
“It took us a year to structure the financial product,” he says Paul Rodrigues, himself the son of a farmer in the Bordeaux region, began his career in investment banking before turning to agricultural investment. Hectarea's principle, with a minimum investment of 500 euros, is a return in the form of rent paid by the farmer, thus a yield linked to the rent.
"The benefit for individuals is the stability of their savings," he assures us. The platform advertises an annual return of between 2% and 4%, taking care to specify that this income is likely to "fluctuate both upwards and downwards." Added to this is the potential capital gain upon resale of the shares. " Knowing that land values have increased by 4% annually in recent years," continues Paul Rodrigues. More land will be offered at the end of March in Occitanie, Champagne, and Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes.
Terres de liens, a solidarity-based agricultural land trust, offers an alternative model. Here there are no annual revenues, simply shares acquired in the
real estate, at 105 euros per unit today. The real estate company buys back your Shares can be purchased whenever you want, but the potential capital gain is low (the share price was €100 in 2006). The capital is used to acquire and maintain farms.
There is a tax advantage to be had, however: a reduction in Income tax of 25% of the amount subscribed, for subscriptions to the capital of socially responsible real estate companies. Payments are capped at an annual limit of €50,000 for a single person.
“We bring together 21,000 people. Those who become “Shareholders primarily choose to invest in accordance with our values of preserving land from development or intensive agriculture ,” explains Marie Mognard, head of socially responsible shareholding at Terre de liens. The land trust currently owns 350 farms across the country, which are leased through environmental rural leases .
Capitalizing in the vineyard
Your love of wine can align with your financial interests. "For the past ten years, three winemakers have disappeared every day in France," warns Ludovic Aventin, founder of Terra Hominis. "Young people can't get established because the banks aren't lending."
The idea: to buy land through wine-growing land groups, in exchange for in-kind benefits. Each year, you are promised the equivalent of 4.5% of your investment in bottles of wine, a quantity that may vary depending on weather conditions. "We 've been around since 2011. We have 3,900 members across 54 projects," explains Ludovic Aventin. These projects are located in Languedoc-Roussillon, Bordeaux, Cognac, Beaujolais, the Loire Valley, and the Rhône Valley. But not Burgundy, where land prices are too high.
The average investor? A man with financial means, who doesn't lives not in a wine-producing region and is interested in wine. The average price of a share is 1,600 euros.
But in this area, beware of fraudulent offers. In 2019, the French Financial Markets Authority (AMF) warned of scams involving agricultural investments. Since then, it has published a blacklist (not exhaustive) of them on its website.
Furthermore, "these are atypical investments and therefore by nature risky. You have to be careful not to put all your money into this type of investment,” warns Claire Castanet, director of relations with savers at the AMF.
Betting on a cow
Oreillette, the star cow of the Paris International Agricultural Show, would surely be a great success if she were offered for sale. For many years now, it has been possible to own your own cow even without land. Élevage et Patrimoine has been offering investments in livestock since 1972.
Investing in a cow costs 1,969 euros, to which one must Add an application fee. In exchange, you receive rent in the form of a financial payment. The platform advertises a (non-guaranteed) return of 3% per year.
Élevage et Patrimoine brings together nearly 5,000 investors, for 30 000 cows spread across nearly a thousand farmers. However, it's impossible to choose or know your specific animal. "To limit risks, all the herds are pooled and the animals are insured by Groupama," explains Carl Darjinoff, director of investor relations.
However, be wary of sites offering similar deals. "If we If you are offered the opportunity to invest in bottles of wine or livestock in exchange for a financial return or its economic equivalent, then your contact's offer must be registered with the AMF. In contrast to our blacklist, we publish a whitelist of authorized sites ,” explains Claire Castanet of the Authority.
“We have been listed there since 2021, to make ourselves known "of the greatest number," describes Carl Darjinoff. Nine agricultural investment offers are thus referenced on the AMF Protect Epargne website: seven in wine, one in livestock ( Livestock and Heritage ) and one in forestry.
