You Can Buy A Paris Apartment On Sale At Half Its Price But There's A Morbid Condition

It's often a dream of many to live in a Parisian home — the kind you see in movies, with tall windows that swing open to tiny wrought-iron balconies, spilling sunlight into chic little rooms. Now, what you were told was that there's a quirky little French twist to making that dream come true? Enter the viager sale, a Parisian mix of real estate and patience. It goes like this: you buy your dream apartment but agree to let the current owner live there until… drumroll… they die and the property becomes all yours. 

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Viager sale is a type of real estate scheme where elderly homeowners, usually in their 70s, 80s, or 90s sell their residence for much less than market value. The cost can be as low as half the price of the property itself. In return, the buyer pays the owner a stipulated amount of money every month. 

Now, the viager sale has two parts: one is called the viager occupe, where the seller has the right to live in the home for the rest of their life. The other is known as viager libre where the buyer can move into the seller's home right away after the latter decides to move out. In this case, however, the buyer still has to make monthly payments to the owner. 

The scheme is a mix of real estate and chance. Property ads often mention the seller's age along with the price. The older the seller, the sooner the buyer could get the home.

In Saint-Germain-des-Prés, the stylish Left Bank area once home to acclaimed novelist Ernest Hemingway and French philosopher Simone de Beauvoir, a 100-square-meter apartment now costs approximately 1.7 million dollars, reported CNN Travel. On the other hand, in Le Marais, a place loved by both trendy Parisians and American buyers, 2025 prices range from 15,500 dollars to 22,000 dollars per square meter, as per real estate agency Talvan's International. 

According to Fréderic Coubronne, a viager agency head in Paris, the practice dates back to Roman times when the “elderly would pass on property to their children or nephews in exchange for a small sum and the ability to continue living in their homes.” 

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