The 'first housing check' measure targets households buying a house for the first time, whose incomes are limited (limited to 3,766€/ month for a household with one child). The household has to be resident in one of the municipalities of the Marseille-Provence-Métropole and must occupy the new house for at least five years.

The city acts on three levels. First, regarding new housing, the city requests that the promoters deliver 20% of their housing estates at a price limited to 2,400€/sqm. maximum. And regarding old housing, the city keeps its premiums only for houses that are in a good conditions and which are sold for less than 2,000€/sqm. This represents around 1,000 housings per year too. Secondly, the city helps the new owners to buy parking space linked to the new home. Thirdly, the new owner gets a premium of around 7,500€ in order to reduce the monthly instalments of the mortgage during the first ten years.

Firstly, the real estate promoters and constructors commit themselves to delivering 20% of housing with controlled costs in every programme. The city facilitates the marketing of the homes and parking spaces with the help of the premiums of the buyers. The city also sometimes provides lands belonging to the city. Secondly, the Deposits Fund commits itself to buying the parking spaces and to supporting them for 15 years. The buyers can use them freely, and buy them back between the 6th and the 15th year at lower price. Thirdly, several banks give a bonus of 4,500€ to the city premium of 3,000€. Hence, the monthly instalments are highly reduced during the five first years of repayment and also reduced during the five following years. Finally, the FNAIM members offer the mortgage with a zero rate to the households who choose a FNAIM members as intermediary to buy housing.

The measure concerns 2,000 households in Marseille per year.

City of Marseille – La Maison du Logement (House of Housing)
Mrs. Laurence Ayvassian (Head of the House of Housing), tel. + 33 810 813 813

//2006

case

Urban Policy

Housing