Real estate assets account for more than 50% of the total wealth of French households, making them their most important asset class. Estimating their value accurately is essential for making the right decisions, whether for a sale, estate planning, or tax optimization. In this article, discover how to define your real estate assets, build them up, estimate them accurately, manage them effectively, and understand their tax treatment.
What Are Real Estate Assets? A Complete Definition
The Different Types of Assets: Real Estate, Movable, and Financial
The assets of an individual or legal entity are made up of three major categories. Real estate assets include all real property holdings, whether for personal use or investment purposes. Movable assets include property that can be physically moved: furniture, vehicles, jewelry, artwork, or collectibles. Financial assets include intangible holdings such as shares, bonds, bank accounts, SCPI units, and life insurance contracts.
Type of assets | Examples of property | Nature |
|---|---|---|
Real estate | Homes, land, commercial premises, agricultural property | Fixed assets, real property |
Movable | Furniture, vehicles, jewelry, artwork | Tangible movable property |
Financial | Shares, bonds, life insurance, bank accounts | Intangible assets, liquid assets |
Assets and Housing: Which Properties Are Included?
Real estate assets include all real property owned by a person. First and foremost, this includes primary and secondary residences, which often form the foundation of French household wealth. This is supplemented by rental properties that generate additional income, building plots intended for future construction, commercial premises, agricultural property such as fields, forests, and plantations, as well as buildings under construction.
Beyond physical property, real estate assets also include property rights such as bare ownership (the right to dispose of an asset without being able to use it) and usufruct (the right to use a property and collect income from it without owning it). These split ownership rights play an important role in estate planning and tax optimization strategies.
How Do You Build Real Estate Assets?
Investing in Rental Property to Build Your Assets
Building real estate assets often starts with the purchase of a primary residence, then gradually expands into rental investment. Rental property is a powerful lever for generating additional income while repaying the loan through rental income. Smaller units, such as studios and one-bedroom apartments, often offer attractive yields and are easy to rent in urban areas.
Property management plays a key role in sustaining this income over time. Entrusting this task to a professional helps secure rent payments, reduce the risk of arrears, and ease administrative burdens.
Diversifying Your Real Estate Investment Strategies
Diversifying your real estate assets helps limit risk and maximize value creation opportunities. Beyond traditional residential property, other investment strategies deserve consideration: commercial real estate such as offices and retail units, SCPIs for hands-off investing, or life annuity property purchases to acquire a property at a lower cost.
SCPIs make it possible to spread risk by allocating capital across several properties and tenants, while benefiting from management delegated to licensed professionals. To build solid assets aligned with your goals, a Capifrance advisor can support you in shaping your investment strategy.
How Do You Estimate the Value of Your Real Estate Assets?
Understanding the Key Valuation Criteria
Accurately estimating your real estate assets is based on several decisive criteria. Location remains the main factor: proximity to amenities, transport links, schools, and the vitality of the neighborhood directly influence value. Floor area and the overall condition of the property are also essential, as is energy performance evidenced by the EPC.
Recent sale prices in your area are a key benchmark for valuing your property at the right price. Do not forget to factor in renovation work that may be needed, as this can significantly affect the final valuation.
Valuation Criteria Checklist
- Location and neighborhood attractiveness
- Living area and layout
- Overall condition and quality of finishes
- Energy performance (EPC)
- Local market prices from recent comparable sales
- Work required or recently completed
- Features and amenities such as garage, terrace, or cellar
The Valuation Methods to Prioritize
To obtain a reliable valuation of your assets, several complementary methods are available. Comparing your property with recent transactions involving similar properties in your area is the foundation of any valuation. Online valuation tools, such as the free one offered by Capifrance, rely on official data to provide an initial objective estimate.
To refine this estimate, the expertise of a real estate advisor remains essential. Thanks to in-depth knowledge of the local market, they take into account all the specific features of your property and its location. The key is to combine several sources in order to obtain a realistic and well-supported value range, which is essential for a sale, estate planning, or your real estate asset declaration.
Managing and Passing On Real Estate Assets: Best Practices
Managing Your Assets to Increase Their Value Over Time
To maintain and increase the value of your real estate assets, regular monitoring is essential. This includes periodic valuation of your properties every two to three years, especially when the local market changes significantly. Energy renovation work and preventive maintenance help preserve the value of your assets and improve their attractiveness.
If you own rental properties, optimizing rental income depends on rigorous management: rents aligned with the market, proper equipment maintenance, and careful tenant selection. For resale, value-enhancing tools such as home staging and professional photography can significantly improve the perception of your property and speed up the transaction.
Passing On Your Assets: What Solutions Are Available?
Passing on real estate assets requires planning ahead to avoid tax pitfalls. Gifts allow you to transfer assets progressively while benefiting from renewable tax allowances. Split ownership, which separates bare ownership from usufruct, is an effective strategy for reducing the taxable base while retaining use of the property.
The main pitfalls to avoid include undervaluing properties in declarations, which can lead to tax reassessments, and overlooking inheritance rules. A lack of planning can also significantly increase the tax burden for your heirs. To structure an optimal transfer strategy, support from a Capifrance real estate advisor and a notary is essential.
How Do You Declare Your Real Estate Assets? Supporting Documents and Taxation
Declaring real estate assets becomes mandatory under the French real estate wealth tax (IFI) when the net taxable value of your property assets exceeds €1.3 million on January 1 of the tax year. This declaration must be made every year in spring, at the same time as your income tax return, via your personal space on impots.gouv.fr.
The required supporting documents include title deeds, previous tax notices, and a recent and reliable valuation of each property. To obtain a precise and free estimate of your assets, use Capifrance’s online valuation tool based on up-to-date official data. This approach gives you an updated valuation, which is essential for correctly completing your IFI return and optimizing your real estate tax position.
Capifrance Expert Advice to Estimate Your Assets
To accurately assess the value of your real estate assets, the expertise of a Capifrance advisor makes all the difference. Our network of nearly 3,000 advisors across mainland France and the overseas departments and territories guarantees in-depth knowledge of the local market and the specific features of your area.
Start by obtaining a free online valuation on the Capifrance website. This exclusive tool uses up-to-date official data to provide you with an initial reliable estimate. You will then be contacted by a local advisor who will refine the analysis by visiting your properties and taking all valuation criteria into account.
Whether your goal is to sell, optimize the management of your real estate projects, or prepare an estate transfer, our advisors support you with personalized solutions tailored to your situation.
Frequently Asked Questions About Real Estate Assets
How Can You Find Out a Person’s Real Estate Assets?
To find out the real estate assets of an individual, you can request a property ownership record from the Land Registration Service, which lists all properties owned in a given département. This requires the person’s name, date of birth, and the relevant département. In a legal context such as inheritance, divorce, or estate transfer, a notary can access this information to establish the full asset situation.
Should You Estimate Your Real Estate Assets Every Year?
It is recommended to reassess your real estate assets at least every two to three years, or whenever there are significant changes in the local market. This regular update is essential for adjusting your tax strategy, especially for the IFI return, and for preparing a possible sale under the best conditions. Valuation also helps you anticipate changes in value over time and optimize asset management.
What Pitfalls Should You Avoid When Estimating Your Assets?
Common mistakes include emotionally overvaluing your properties, which distorts their real market value, and ignoring the constantly changing local market. Many people forget to factor in charges and required work, which affects the net valuation. Failing to include the EPC in the assessment is also a mistake, as energy performance has a strong influence on price. Relying solely on an online estimate without validation by a local advisor can lead to significant gaps from the actual market reality.
Author
Frédéric Rémy – Director of Commercial Performance
A real estate professional for several years within the Capifrance network, I would like to share with you some essential advice to help you succeed in your real estate project with the support of our advisors.
