Satisfaction guaranteed or money back for new-build buyers

A Montpellier real estate developer has introduced a ‘satisfaction guaranteed or your money back’ policy that could revolutionise the off-plan buying of French new-build property.

The innovation from Roxim relates to 200 new apartments currently under construction in Montpellier, Fréjus and Saint-Martin-du-Var.

It permits first-time buyers who are using the government’s prêt à taux zéro (PTZ, or zero-rate loans) scheme to pull out of their purchase right up until the moment they collect their keys.

They don’t need to give a reason for their change of heart, and the property will then be bought by the developer themselves at the agreed sale price. The ‘non-buyer’ would, however, still be liable for any notaire costs accrued as well as the frais de garantie (loan guarantee fees).

Anyone who purchases off-plan in France is effectively buying into a promise of how the build will look upon completion, using only the developer’s contract and plans to go by. This is called Vefa (Vente en l’état futur d’achèvement), which can be translated as ‘sale based on a future state of completion’.

As well as a completion date, usually included in the Vefa contract are certain ‘conformity faults’ which, if they occur, permit the buyer to withdraw. However, what Roxim is proposing is that the buyer can simply be unhappy with what they see and pull out of the deal.

"The customer will be able to visit the apartment at the time of delivery and say ‘I do not want to buy it’, if he does not like it, if there is a new building opposite or if the tram passes too close - whatever the reason," said the Roxim President Marc Pigeon, who was formerly president of the Federation of Real Estate Developers (FPI).

“We want to go beyond the guarantee of completion, because buying a first house is a lifetime’s commitment that causes both anxiety and a distrust of the developer,” Mr Pigeon added.