These days, all the solutions that facilitate the first real estate acquisition deserve to be explored in depth. The one just launched by Crédit Mutuel Arkéa is called Duoprimo and proposes to integrate the personal contribution of new eligible buyers within the limit of 40,000 euros and 10% of the total acquisition cost. This offer distributed in the branches of Crédit Mutuel de Bretagne and Crédit Mutuel du Sud Ouest will allow Crédit Mutuel Arkéa (through Arkéa Foncière Résidentielle) to co-invest together with those making the first purchase of a new off-plan property (off-plan sale). . the future state of completion) or in the first, provided that without work and for housing whose letter of DPE would be at least classified E (excluding thermal filters). This joint ownership cannot exceed the duration of 10 years.
A formula that closely resembles the one made popular almost 5 years ago by the start-up Virgil, except that the latter can invest up to 20% and 100,000 euros and does not provide for a ban relating to energy performance. Without forgetting that Virgil is aimed at an urban clientele who lives in the main French metropolises or in their immediate suburbs. At Crédit Mutuel Arkéa, it is explained that this 10% threshold was determined after examining numerous dossiers which showed that“the vast majority of funding requests currently rejected due to a significant level of commitment could be supported if the funding plan included only 90% of the total amount”. A very small share which must also underline, according to the bank, that this offer is there “provide a solution to families excluded from the traditional financing model” and that its price is not intended to maximize financial profitability performance.
Conflict of interest
“Buying your first property is a major issue that everyone is trying to solve and in this sense it is interesting that a large bank is interested”notes Saskia Fiszel, co-founder of Virgil. That doesn’t stop him from being a little more offensive about his new competitor. “We know the Crédit Mutuel Arkéa teams with whom we have already worked and their offer is a bit of a degraded carbon copy of our solution, with limits on amount and energy performance, she slips. Additionally, our clients appreciate the use of a co-investor who is not the financier. If the same entity is present at both tables, there may be a conflict of interest.
For the moment, the Parisian start-up claims an average investment share of just over 10% (and therefore a significant share of projects in which Virgil co-invests between 10 and 20%). For his part, Julien Carmona, president of Crédit Mutuel Arkéa and Crédit Mutuel de Bretagne, believes that this offer from Duoprimo has a bright future. After having successfully tested it in several agencies, she “It is set to be rolled out across our entire network very soon”. Remember that if the production of real estate credit fell by 41% in France in 2023, this decline was only 20% for the local banks of Crédit Mutuel de Bretagne and Crédit Mutuel du Sud-Ouest. A figure that it intends to further reduce with this new real estate solution.