Acquiring an apartment three minutes from the Montparnasse cemetery and a quarter of an hour from the Luxembourg Gardens is impossible for most Parisians. A fortiori for those who did not inherit from their parents. What if we told you that instead of paying around 10,000 euros per square meter, we were selling you an apartment at half price, less than 5,000 euros per square meter? This is the promise of the real joint lease, known as “BRS”, which is increasingly developing in Paris.
What is BRS?
The principle of this device, made possible by a law in 2015, is to dissociate land from buildings. A solidarity land organization, here Foncière de la Ville de Paris, buys the land and sells the walls to property candidates. Buyers sign a 99-year lease and must pay a small symbolic fee every month (2.5 euros per square meter) for the rental of the land. They can then resell the accommodation when they leave it, at the price purchased, plus an increase indexed to construction costs. That is currently 6 to 7% per year, but usually less.
“The idea is to allow private tenants who cannot buy in Paris to stop paying rent and build up savings. And it’s also about getting people out of social housing,” explains Jacques Baudrier, housing assistant and president of Foncière de la Ville de Paris. The selection criteria for beneficiaries favor HLM tenants.
How many times cheaper is it?
The average level per square meter for BRS operations in Paris is around “4,700 or 4,800 euros” according to the elected official. “This is the price of 20 years ago, when people could become owners without worry. » According to a study by the start-up Virgil carried out in April 2023, a first-time buyer must earn on average 97,490 euros per year to be able to buy a 40m2 apartment, not counting the 10% contribution. Twenty years ago, for the same surface area, 42,000 were needed. A financial effort that is impossible today for Katya Todorova, manager in the IT field and single mother of three children, who had the happy surprise of being selected for the first marketing salvo of the BRS in Paris, in 2021 .
” This is the dream ! When I was told I was selected, I felt like I had won the lottery! It’s extraordinary for us to have access to this accommodation. I don’t have any help from my relatives or my parents, and there you just need to have a solid permanent contract. » Katya was able to buy a 65m2 for around 350,000 euros on the site of the former Saint-Vincent-de-Paul hospital, between boulevards Raspail and avenue Denfert-Rochereau: “It is a real opportunity offered to the middle classes to be able to live, buy and evolve in Paris. It is also the possibility one day to resell and recover the amounts I am going to spend. I loved having this possibility! »
Am I entitled to it?
To apply for the BRS, you must first commit to making the accommodation your main residence (it is not possible to rent it!) and respect the ceilings, which were raised very recently according to Jacques Baudrier, to take the situation into account. Parisian. Thus a single person must have a reference tax income (indicated on your tax form) less than 37,581 euros (knowing that the year taken into account is the one which precedes marketing by two years, i.e. the income of the year 2022 for marketing in 2024). But in reality, it is mainly families, couples who plan to have children or single-parent families who will access this housing, taking into account the other criteria – around ten in total – that the Paris town hall applies, and of the number of candidates for these accommodations.
A couple with two children will therefore have to present a reference tax income lower than around 87,900 euros, or around 56,160 euros if they have no children. While a single mother or father with a child will have to earn less than 73,630 euros, whether they have shared or sole custody of their children. All ceilings can be viewed on the Foncière website. Having a link with Paris, working or already living there, being overcrowded in your home (four people in a two-room apartment, for example), being a young couple or even being a first-time buyer will give points to candidates. “And we favor key workers: nursing staff, teachers, delivery people, RATP agents, social workers, cooks,” explains Sophie Lecoq, director of Foncière de la Ville de Paris.
Where are the homes available for sale located?
All the apartments on the site of the former Saint-Vincent-de-Paul hospital have been sold, but new marketing will soon take place, “normally in 2024”, according to the director, representing just under 200 housing units in total. Two buildings will be proposed around the new Chapelle Charbon park, between the Aubervilliers and La Chapelle gates, for 75 housing units. One hundred and ten others will be available in the new Python-Duvernois district, near the Porte de Bagnolet, on the edge of a new park. Neighborhoods perhaps less attractive today than that of Saint-Vincent-de-Paul, but “which will be transformed”, according to Jacques Baudrier. Smaller addresses should also be marketed in 2025 in the 19th and 18th. The objective is to reach at least 1,000 housing units marketed by the end of 2026, according to Anne Hidalgo’s housing deputy.
How to apply and what happens next?
People who want to be informed of sales can register on the Foncière de la Ville de Paris website. A test, a sort of simulator, allows you to check your eligibility for the system, then to access the application platform. An online application must then be completed, with a certain number of specific supporting documents, as for the purchase of housing. “Having applied for a loan from a banking establishment will award points,” explains the director of the Solidarity Land Organization (OFS).
A commission then deliberates and if you are selected, you will need to write a cover letter, which is particularly important if the housing you are applying for is part of participatory housing, as in Saint-Vincent-de-Paul. “That was also the project: creating links with residents to maintain an atmosphere, mutual aid, social actions…” explains Katya Todorova, who had written a letter to this effect.
Once selected, this single mother began workshops with her future neighbors, the aim of which was to select an architect or to think about common spaces. After more than a year of co-construction, the building permit was submitted at the beginning of 2023, but an appeal from the neighborhood put a few spokes in the wheels. Delivery scheduled for the second half of 2025 could ultimately be delayed by a year. An obstacle that does not frighten Katya Todorova: “Just the idea of being able to buy accommodation in Paris, near the Luxembourg Gardens, there are concessions that we can make! »