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Video length: 22 min
Correspondent. Life annuity, the good deal?
Correspondent. Life annuity, the good deal?
(SPECIAL SENDING / FRANCE 2)
Small pensions, soaring real estate… life annuity is attracting more and more French people. Is it still a good deal for the buyer? What risks for the seller?
Buying a home occupied by an elderly person and waiting for their death to be able to benefit from it is the principle of life annuity, which is in full swing. Small pensions, soaring real estate… nearly 10,000 retirees sold their home on life annuity in 2021, a figure increasing by 10% per year. It allows some to stay at home, completely independently, and others to realize some of their dreams.
In Vendée, Vincent, 77, has put his house up for sale. In life annuity. Nathalie, 50, driving school manager, is going to buy it. She will pay him a “bouquet” of 25,000 euros and a monthly pension of 570 euros until his death. They both see this transaction as “an exchange, a transfer of power”. Vincent will be able to take advantage of his retirement to travel…
An attractive investment
Life annuity has become an attractive investment for wealthy buyers, because to buy a life annuity, you have to pay cash. Pascal, 52, started buying life annuity in 2017. He now owns four properties and is going to visit a fifth. An investment that he sees as “risk management”intended to increase its assets.
Life annuity prices are calculated based on the Daubry scale, an estimate of the seller’s life expectancy. But suspicion weighs on buyers because the shadow of abuse of weakness still hangs over the life annuity…
A report by Adrian Jaouen, Alexandre Lagarde, Marion Lippmann, Aurélien Fougère, Boris Balducci, rebroadcast in “Special Envoy” on May 2, 2024.
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