“Nights of anxiety”: five years after the purchase, his apartment is still under construction

TESTIMONIALS. Capital gives a voice to French people who have embarked on a real estate project, despite the housing crisis. Second episode with Frédéric, who has been living a real nightmare for more than 4 years after buying a new home in the Paris region.

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He never imagined that his real estate purchase would turn into a nightmare. In 2019, Frédéric decided to invest in a new apartment in Villejuif (Val-de-Marne) in order to benefit from the Pinel system. This allows you to benefit from a tax reduction on the price of housing, subject to renting it with a capped rent to people whose income does not exceed certain thresholds. This fifty-year-old Parisian, sales manager in a software publishing company, has set his sights on a home for sale off-plan (off-plan) of around fifty square meters. In July 2019, Frédéric bought the apartment off plan for 308,000 euros from a Bordeaux developer. To finance the acquisition, he took out a loan at the very advantageous rate of 0.95%. Delivery of this property located in a 250-unit condominium is initially scheduled for the end of 2021.

But quickly, bad news arrives. Frédéric, who still lives in a rental apartment in Paris, quickly understands that his future accommodation will not be delivered on time. At the end of 2019, the developer announced that the delivery of housing was postponed to early 2022, due to a delay during a call for tenders from potential subcontractors. But the worst is yet to come. “In 2020, Covid fell on us and the developer announced that all construction sites were suspended, it was a big blow, remembers Frédéric. Workers can no longer work due to the pandemic, it’s a total blur“. In 2021, a new twist since the Villejuif town hall decides to suspend the work due to a town planning problem, which leaves the co-owners incomprehension. And as if that were not enough, in 2022, the newly elected mayor of Villejuif will in turn suspend the construction site.

A construction site at a standstill

Three years after purchasing the apartment, construction is at a standstill. Frédéric begins to lose patience and obviously tries to contact the promoter for explanations. “We were taken around, each time we were given a new reason to justify the new delays, it was endless. It was exhausting», explains Frédéric. The fifty-year-old is in an increasingly difficult situation since he has to pay the interim costs of his property loan, in addition to the rent of his Parisian apartment. Not to mention the stress and sleepless nights. But Frédéric is not at the end of his troubles, the delivery of his accommodation is constantly postponed: “In June 2023, the developer announced that it was experiencing delivery issues due to the war in Ukraine. Then there was a problem connecting to the GRDF network. There was always a good excuse“.

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Frédéric’s situation is now more than critical. The latest news is that the delivery of his apartment is scheduled for the first quarter of 2025. But the Parisian no longer believes it. “The construction has barely started, there are only the walls, it’s catastrophic, he laments. I’m going to find myself unemployed and I have to start paying off my mortgage.” With the current delivery delay, Frédéric has already lost three years of income from collecting rent.

Obviously, Frédéric, like most of the other co-owners of the residence under construction, consulted lawyers to try to obtain compensation. “They told us that we had to wait for the housing to be delivered before taking the developer to court”continues Frédéric. The developer still decided to make a gesture towards the injured co-owners, by offering them compensation of up to 2,000 euros. “They really don’t care about us. Dozens of families find themselves in a horrible situation because of their incompetence.fumes Frederic.