Buy your home at a low price thanks to the BRS system

Rehabilitation of a building in the Arceaux district, with 4 apartments delivered in March 2025, benefiting from the real solidarity lease. Midi Libre – JEAN-MICHEL MART

Current state inside the building, soon to be renovated. Florence Guilhem

Signature du premier bail solidaire en réhabilitation, le 13 septembre dernier, rue Magnol, à Montpellier. Florence Guilhem

Buying a new or renovated apartment with a real solidarity lease at 40% below real estate market prices is now possible for people on low incomes in the Montpellier metropolitan area. Instructions.

They dreamed of their own apartment, just for them. “My wife and I had been looking to buy in Montpellier for years, but the price of apartments was too high for us“, says Rémi Reuge, who works at the Montpellier University Hospital. Then came the day when his wife spotted a new 87m2 T4 with terrace, parking and bike storage on Le Bon Coin for €260,000 in the Millénaire district, while on the real estate market for this type of property prices start at €360,000.

“We didn't believe it in such a sought-after area and at that price. We thought there must be something wrong“, he remembers. But there is nothing fishy. The couple approached the property developer and discovered the Real Solidarity Lease (BRS), separating ownership of the land from that of the walls, which makes it possible to reduce the purchase price of the home. Then, the couple makes an appointment with the Solidarity Land Organisation (OFS), responsible for developing this new method of access to sustainable and solidarity-based property, to put together their file.

About the OFS

This territorial player brings together, in addition to the Métropole and its member municipalities, Altémed, FDI Habitat, CDC Habitat social and the SFHE (Société française d’habitations économiques), all players in development and social housing in the region. Its role? Create an offer of accessible and sustainably affordable housing. It is a non-profit structure of general interest approved by the prefect of the Occitanie Region.

How to benefit from the BRS ?

The conditions required to be eligible are as follows: an income ceiling not to be exceeded; a certain profile (young households, first-time buyers, single-parent families, elderly people); the adequacy between the family composition and the housing; not being the owner of another home; and, of course, living or working in the municipality where the apartment is located. “And if you exercise a profession said to be essential for the activity of the territory, this adds additional points to have access to the approval“, indicates the director of the OFS, Mahamane Sow.

Once the file has been studied, the OFS grants a pre-validation which serves as a reservation of the accommodation for the future purchaser. The approval, or final validation, definitively formalizes the allocation of the accommodation. Case closed. "Even if the accommodation has not yet been built and its delivery is scheduled for the end of 2026, we are already super happy, because the neighborhood is quiet, well served, and ideally located for our children's school and for our work. For all this, we are ready to wait another year and a half. It changes life“, shares Rémi Reuge.

The rest ? Since the OFS remains the owner of the land, the buyer of the property signs a 99-year lease with it and pays it, each month, an occupancy fee set at €1.30 per m2. In the case of a resale, the OFS regulates the price (limited capital gain). Interest? No speculation possible to encourage the purchase of housing at an affordable price for a buyer with modest incomes, after verification of their eligibility for the system by the OFS and obtaining approval. Note that the property is however transferable to the surviving spouse and descendants.

The BRS also applies to rehabilitated housing

Initially designed for new housing, the system now applies to housing being renovated in the old real estate sector. At 16 rue Magnol, in the Arceaux district, where the first real solidarity lease in renovation was signed on September 13, the building was pre-empted by the City of Montpellier at the end of 2023 and the management entrusted to the OFS. “In this way, we are taking concrete action on social diversity while also fighting against real estate speculation“, said Michaël Delafosse, mayor of Montpellier and president of Montpellier Méditerranée Métropole, on the day this BRS was signed.

This building, dating from the 1920s, initially included 6 apartments on two levels. With the project selected, and entrusted in its realization and marketing to FDI Habitat, partner and founding member of the OFS Métropolitain, there will ultimately be 4 more functional T3 housing units and all through, including two with private gardens, which will benefit from the BRS system and will be delivered at the end of March 2025.

The target audience ? Households with a net monthly salary of 2,900 euros to 3,500 euros, living or working in the metropolis. Bingo: families are already interested in acquiring these goods. “To be reproduced in Montpellier and in the metropolis“, concluded Claudine Vassas-Mejri, president of the Metropolitan OFS and vice-president of the Metropolis, delegate for housing, accommodation and residential pathways.

Key figures from the OFS

348 housing units benefiting from the BRS are currently being marketing.

130 households have purchased their homes thanks to the BRS.

700 homes benefiting from the BRS are committed over a year and a half between 2024 and 2025.

4 000homes are scheduled over 10 years.

17 million euros have been invested this year.

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