You're looking for an investment that pays you additional income, without managing tenants or watching the stock market every morning. Two solutions keep coming up in your research: SCPI and crowdlending. The former distribute rents, the latter interest. On paper, they do the same job, but in practice, minimum investment, payment frequency, taxation and the ability to get your money back have almost nothing in common! We suggest comparing them point by point, with 2026 figures, to find out which one fits your situation… or whether it is better to combine the two.
SCPI or crowdlending: which investment for regular income?
Definitions
An SCPI most often pays out its income every quarter, is designed to be held for around ten years, and its rents are taxed as property income.
Crowdlending pays interest every month, on loans ranging from a few months to a little over a year, and falls under the flat tax.
In both cases, your capital is not guaranteed. From there, everything comes down to the details we are going to analyse.
And if you want to broaden the thinking to other vehicles, our guide to the investment that pays every month reviews nine solutions.
SCPI and crowdlending: two very different ways of earning income
Before comparing the figures, you need to understand where the money from each of these investments comes from, because that is exactly where they diverge.
SCPI: you receive a share of the rents
An SCPI (société civile de placement immobilier) collects the savings of thousands of partners to buy offices, shops, warehouses or housing. It rents them out, collects the rents, pays its costs, then pays you the remainder in proportion to your units.
So you do not own a building. You are a shareholder in a company that owns dozens of them.
Direct consequence: the income from an SCPI is not set in advance. It depends on the occupancy rate of the buildings, renegotiated rents, and tenant departures. It can go up, it can go down.
Crowdlending: you earn the interest on a loan
With crowdlending, you lend money to companies through a platform. In exchange, the borrower pays you interest according to a schedule signed from the outset, then repays the principal.
Here, the income is therefore contractual : the rate and the schedule are known before investing. That does not mean, however, that they are guaranteed, we will come back to this.
There are two repayment structures:
The amortizing loan returns part of the principal at each instalment,
The bullet loan pays you only the interest during the term of the loan, then the entire principal at the end.
Note: at Maclear, which finances European SMEs, loans follow this second structure: interest every month, and the principal returned in one go at maturity.
Crowdlending is a form of crowdfunding, but not all crowdfunding is crowdlending. If the distinction seems unclear to you, we detail it in our article crowdfunding or crowdlending: understanding the difference.
And what about real estate crowdfunding in all this?
Type "SCPI or crowdfunding" into Google: almost all comparisons pit the SCPI against real estate crowdfunding. Logical, since both involve property.
Except that for an objective of regular income, the comparison doesn't really hold up.
Financing for a development project, repaid at the end
Real estate crowdfunding most often consists of lending to a developer, in the form of bonds, to finance the construction or renovation of a project. The developer repays you once he has sold his units.
The targeted returns are high, on the order of 9% per year, over terms of 12 to 36 months. But in many deals, the interest is capitalised and paid at maturity, along with the capital.
So for two or three years, you receive… nothing.
Why it does not replace a source of income?
Real estate crowdfunding is a yield investment, not an income investment. It is used to grow capital over a given period, not to supplement your budget each month.
You also have to deal with delays: when a construction project goes off track or sales slow down, repayment slips by several months, sometimes more. The 2022-2025 period was a reminder of this: rising rates, sluggish sales of new housing, construction cost overruns… Several French platforms were directly affected, Koregraf ceased operations in April 2025 and WiSEED was placed in receivership before being taken over by the Advenis group in December 2025.
In short, if your priority is a steady income stream, the real contest is between SCPI and business crowdlending. That is the one we detail in the rest of the article.
Real estate crowdfunding and crowdlending are both subject to the flat tax for a French tax resident. The difference therefore does not lie in the tax, but in the timing: interest at the end of the operation on one side, monthly interest on the other.
The SCPI vs crowdlending comparison table
Here are the essentials on a single page.
The crowdlending figures are based on the example of Maclear; conditions vary from one platform to another.
| Criterion | SCPI | Crowdlending (Maclear example) |
|---|---|---|
| What you hold | Shares in a real estate company | Claims on loans to SMEs |
| Entry ticket | A few hundred euros generally, sometimes less | €50 per loan |
| Benchmark yield | 4.91% average distribution rate in 2025 | Fixed rates displayed of 14% to 16% per year |
| Nature of the income | Rents, variable | Interest set by contract |
| Payment frequency | Most often quarterly | Monthly |
| Time before the first income | 2 to 6 months (entitlement period) | First monthly instalment of the loan |
| Duration | No maturity, recommended horizon of about ten years | 4 to 16 months per loan |
| Fees | Subscription fees often close to 10%, management fees on rents | No entry or management fees, 2.5% charged to the seller in the event of resale |
| Taxation in France | Property income: income tax scale + 17.2% | Flat tax at 31.4% or option for the income tax scale |
| Early exit | Resale of units, with no guaranteed timeframe | Secondary market, with no guaranteed buyer |
| Lock-up period | Variable, units sometimes awaiting withdrawal | A few days to 2 weeks before the first listing for sale |
| Main risks | Rental vacancy, decline in the dividend and in the unit price | Borrower default, platform risk |
| Regulation | Product approved by the AMF | Member of the PolyReg SRO, supervised by FINMA |
| Life insurance or credit | Possible | No |
One figure stands out: the yield gap. It does not mean that one "pays more" than the other at equal risk. A rate of 14% remunerates a credit risk on SMEs, a rate of 5% remunerates the holding of rented buildings. These are not the same risks, so they are remunerated differently; we compare them below.
Minimum investment: both are accessible
First point in common: neither SCPI nor crowdlending requires a large capital to start.
On the SCPI side, the price of a unit varies from a few dozen to more than a thousand euros, and some require a minimum number of units at the first subscription. The unit price can even be split to improve accessibility: that of Perial Opportunités Europe went from 880 to €44 on 1 January 2026.
On the crowdlending side, Maclear sets the minimum at €50 per investment on the primary market.
The real question is therefore not "how much do you need to start?". It is rather: how much do you need to be diversified?
A single SCPI unit already exposes you to dozens of buildings! A €50 loan exposes you to a single borrower.
Keep in mind that in crowdlending, diversification is built by hand, by spreading your capital across several loans, several sectors, several countries. With €1,000, you can finance twenty loans. With €200, only four.
Regularity of income: quarterly or monthly
This is the heart of the matter. And here, the two investments behave completely differently.
SCPI: the deferred entitlement period, an air pocket at the start
When you buy SCPI units, you receive nothing for several months, this is the deferred entitlement period : the time it takes the management company to invest your money in rented buildings.
In 2026, you should expect between 2 and 6 months, with a majority of yield SCPIs between 3 and 6 months.
This period is normal. It protects the existing unitholders, whose income would be diluted if newcomers were paid before their money started working.
Then, the income most often comes in each quarter. A few SCPIs pay out monthly, but they remain a minority.
Crowdlending: a monthly flow, and capital to reinvest
On a loan, a company offering crowdlending such as on Maclear, the interest arrives every month from the first instalment, no deferred entitlement period!
Be careful, however, not to confuse flow with sustainable income. With a bullet loan, the month of maturity returns your capital in one lump sum, and if you do not reinvest it, the income stops.
To maintain a stable monthly income, you therefore need to reinvest the repaid capital as you go. This is in fact how crowdlending investors build a horizon of several years with loans of a few months.
Note: Maclear's AutoInvest tool can automate this step according to your criteria!
Displayed return, actual return
On the SCPI side, the reference figure is the distribution rate. In 2025, it reaches 4.91% on average, ranging from 4.2% for residential SCPIs to 6% for diversified ones.
Except that this rate only tells part of the story. It takes into account neither the share price nor the subscription fees. Over the year 2025, the average share price fell by 3.45%, bringing the overall performance of SCPIs down to +1.46%.
On the crowdlending side, the rates displayed by Maclear range from 14 to 16% per year. This rate is not a guaranteed return: it assumes that the borrower repays as planned. One unrecovered default, and the actual performance of your portfolio falls.
To compare honestly, always think in terms of net performance: income received, minus fees, minus taxes, plus or minus the change in capital.
Taxation: property income versus flat tax
For a French tax resident, this is often the criterion that tips the decision, and since 2026, the gap between the two regimes has shifted.
French SCPIs: income tax scale + 17.2%
The rents from an SCPI invested in France are property income. They are added to your other income and taxed on the progressive scale, therefore at your marginal tax rate (TMI). On top of that come 17.2% in social contributions.
Good news: the CSG increase voted for 2026 does not concern this category. Property income remains subject to 17.2% in social contributions.
Bad news: from a TMI of 30% upwards, the bill rises quickly. 30% tax, plus 17.2% social contributions, i.e. 47.2% of your rents going back to the tax authorities!
European SCPIs: gentler, but more complex
An SCPI that invests outside France receives rents from foreign sources. Depending on the tax treaties, two mechanisms exist: the tax credit, or the exemption with the effective rate taken into account.
In both cases, the final taxation is often lighter than with a 100% French SCPI, including social security contributions. The exact treatment nevertheless depends on the countries held and on your personal situation: the single tax statement (IFU) sent each year by the management company tells you where to declare what, so take the time to review it.
Crowdlending: flat tax at 31.4%
Crowdlending interest is investment income. By default it falls under the single flat-rate withholding, the well-known flat tax!
Since 1 January 2026, it has risen from 30% to 31.4%: 12.8% income tax and 18.6% social security contributions. An option for the progressive scale remains possible, but it then applies to all of your capital income for the year…
As Maclear is a Swiss platform, two formalities are added: the 2778 form to pay the advance payment and the social security contributions on the interest received, and the 3916 form to declare your account held abroad.
Everything is detailed in our guide on the taxation of crowdlending in France and in our article on investing in Switzerland from France.
Example: what is left out of €1,000 of income
Let's take €1,000 of rent from a French SCPI on one side, and €1,000 of crowdlending interest on the other. For each marginal tax bracket we use the most favourable option (excluding deductible CSG and excluding other capital income).
| Your marginal tax rate | French SCPI: net after taxes | Crowdlending: net after taxes |
|---|---|---|
| 0 % | 828 € | €814 (tax schedule option) |
| 11 % | 718 € | €704 (tax schedule option) |
| 30 % | 528 € | €686 (flat tax) |
| 41 % | 418 € | €686 (flat tax) |
The result is clear: for lightly taxed households, the French SCPI is slightly more favourable. From the 30% bracket onwards, the flat tax clearly takes the advantage: at a marginal tax rate of 41%, the gap reaches €268 for €1,000 of income!
If you are a person with means, substantial income and significant taxation, crowdlending wins the match hands down.
This calculation compares taxation only, at identical gross income. It says nothing about the level of return of each investment or its risk. And if you hold your SCPIs through a life insurance policy, it is the taxation of life insurance that applies.
Liquidity and lock-up period: who gets their money back, and when?
Receiving an income is good. Being able to get your capital back the day you need it is better. And this is where the two investments have followed very different paths in recent years.
If you want to explore the concept in general, we cover it in our article on the liquidity of an investment.
SCPI: when sellers wait
In a variable-capital SCPI, you sell your units back to the management company, which "buys them back" thanks to the subscriptions of new partners, so as long as the inflows keep coming, everything is fine.
When it slows down, redemption requests pile up. That is what has happened since 2023, after the fall in unit prices. As of 30 June 2026, units awaiting redemption still represented 1.9 billion euros.
To break the deadlock, eleven SCPIs have suspended the variability of their capital since the start of 2026, representing about 12% of the market's capitalisation. Their units are now traded on a secondary market, at the price where buyers and sellers meet.
SCPI remain a long-term investment and reselling after two years means running the risk of not recouping the entry fees, or even of waiting several months to exit…
Crowdlending: maturity or the secondary market
In crowdlending, the natural exit is the loan's maturity : on Maclear, 4 to 16 months. Your capital then returns to your account, provided the borrower repays.
Need to exit earlier? Maclear's secondary market lets you resell your loan claims to other investors. The rules are simple:
A first listing for sale is possible a few days to 2 weeks after the project's fundraising closes.
You sell at par or with a discount of up to 50%, never above the amount invested.
The listing expires after 14 days without a buyer, and no fees are charged.
A fee of 2.5% is payable by the seller, only if the sale goes through.
A claim purchased on the secondary market cannot be resold for 30 days.
Over the period from May 2024 to May 2026, the median time to sale was approximately 3 hours, with 80.7% of listings sold within 24 hours and 97% within 7 days. Maclear points out that these historical figures do not guarantee future liquidity : it all depends on buyer demand at the moment you sell.
To go further, our article dedicated to the secondary market for P2P lending details pricing and adverse selection risk.
The risks: what can interrupt your income
Neither of the two investments is risk-free. But they do not fear the same things.
An SCPI first fears rental vacancy. Fewer tenants means less rent, and therefore a falling dividend.
The average financial occupancy rate of SCPIs fell to 91.3% in 2025, declining for the second consecutive year. In the first half of 2026, 53% of SCPIs reduced their distribution. It also fears a fall in property values, which is reflected in the share price.
Crowdlending first fears the borrower's default, and an SME in difficulty may suspend its repayments, and your claim then depends on recovery!
Several mechanisms limit this risk without eliminating it. At Maclear, loans are backed by collateral (equipment, inventory, vehicles, real estate), and the ratio between the amount lent and the value of the collateral is measured by the loan-to-value ratio (LTV). Added to this is a Provision Fund, funded by 2% of each financed project: if a borrower is more than 3 days late on their interest, Maclear continues to pay the interest from this fund until payments resume.
There remains the platform risk, specific to crowdlending: the soundness of the intermediary matters as much as that of the borrowers. On this point, the framework also differs.
SCPIs are products approved by the AMF. Maclear is a Swiss platform, a member of the self-regulatory organisation PolyReg, supervised by FINMA.
To assess these risks methodically, before choosing one or the other, our guide to assessing the risk of an investment offers a simple framework.
SCPI or crowdlending: which one to choose according to your profile?
There is no universal winner. There is above all one investment better suited than the other to your horizon, your taxation and your need for income.
An SCPI suits you if…
You are aiming for a horizon of at least ten years, and you accept not touching this capital in the meantime. You are taxed little, or you hold your units within a life insurance policy. You want immediate real estate diversification without having to build it yourself.
And you are considering investing on credit: that is possible with SCPI, not with crowdlending.
Crowdlending suits you better if…
You want monthly income, with no deferred entitlement period. Your marginal tax rate is 30% or more, and the flat tax is favourable to you. You prefer short commitments, of a few months, that you can adjust as you go.
And you are ready to actively diversify across many loans, accepting a higher credit risk in exchange for a higher return.
And why not both?
Many investors do not choose. They combine.
The SCPI plays the role of the long-term real estate base, with quarterly income. Crowdlending provides a monthly flow and short maturities that regularly give the portfolio back some flexibility. Above all, the two do not depend on the same drivers: one on the rental market, the other on the health of European SMEs.
A simple way to tier your income, in short. This is also the logic developed in our guide to alternative investments.
Key points
SCPI and crowdlending both make it possible to target regular income, but by opposite routes. SCPI relies on real estate and the long term, with variable income and heavy taxation for highly taxed taxpayers. Crowdlending relies on lending to companies and the short term, with monthly interest, a flat tax of 31.4% and capital to be reinvested at each maturity.
On the liquidity side, neither offers a guaranteed exit. The difficulties of some SCPIs since 2023 have shown this, as has the functioning of any secondary market.
The right choice therefore depends less on the advertised rate than on three questions: how long can you tie up this capital, what is your marginal tax rate, and what risk are you prepared to bear?
FAQ
SCPI or crowdlending: which pays more after tax?
It all depends on your marginal tax rate and the yield of each investment. For the same gross income, the French SCPI is slightly more favourable at a marginal tax rate of 0 or 11%. From 30% onwards, the flat tax on crowdlending leaves more net income. Crowdlending also offers higher rates, in exchange for greater credit risk.
Do SCPIs pay income every month?
No, not most of them. SCPIs most often pay their income each quarter, after a deferred entitlement period of 2 to 6 months. A few offer monthly payments. In crowdlending, interest is generally monthly.
Is crowdlending riskier than an SCPI?
The risk is not of the same nature. An SCPI is exposed to rental vacancy and to a fall in the price of units, across a highly diversified portfolio. Crowdlending is exposed to the default of each borrower and to platform risk, with diversification you have to build yourself. In both cases, capital may be partly lost.
Can crowdlending be held in a life insurance policy or a PEA?
No. Crowdlending loans are held directly, on the platform. SCPIs, on the other hand, are offered in many life insurance contracts.
Must a crowdlending account opened in Switzerland be declared?
Yes. A French tax resident must declare each year any account held abroad using form 3916, and declare the interest received. The advance payment and social security contributions are settled via form 2778, unless exempted from the advance payment depending on your reference tax income.
SCPI or crowdlending: the question is not to find the best investment in absolute terms, but the one that fits your timetable, your tax situation and your risk tolerance. The quarterly rents of an SCPI and the monthly interest of a loan do not meet the same need, and they can perfectly well coexist within the same portfolio. So, what does your budget need: a foundation for the next ten years, or income that arrives as soon as next month?
About Maclear
Maclear AG is a Swiss peer-to-peer (P2P) lending and crowdlending platform, headquartered in Switzerland. The company acts as a financial intermediary in the non-banking sector and is a member of PolyReg SRO, in accordance with Swiss financial regulations, particularly regarding AML, KYC, and GDPR. Maclear provides individual and qualified investors access to carefully selected business loan opportunities, with integrated risk assessment, a Provision Fund, and a Secondary Market for liquidity.
The content of this article is provided for informational and educational purposes only. It does not constitute investment, financial, tax, or legal advice. Peer-to-peer (P2P) lending and crowdlending investments carry a risk of partial or total loss of capital. Past performance does not predict future results. Liquidity on a secondary market is not guaranteed. Readers are encouraged to conduct their own research and consult qualified advisors before making any financial decisions. The availability of products and services may be restricted in certain jurisdictions.