when historic buildings turn into apartments

Seen from the sky, the castle of Jouars-Pontchartrain (Yvelines) always looks great. This jewel of the Ile-de-France heritage housed the great servants of King Louis XIV. Rodolphe Albert’s job is to buy buildings classified as historical monuments and transform them into apartments. The real estate operation is called “a sale by cutting”. In order to attract a wealthy clientele, it relies on a very advantageous tax system. The work, at the expense of the future owner, is deductible from his taxable income.

For the promoter, this boost from the State is essential, because the buildings are sometimes in poor condition. In the end, it is the taxpayer who ends up financing part of the work. “What irritates me is to invoke History to destroy it (…). It no longer has any heritage interest. There, it’s really a lambda apartment like you see everywhere (…)”believes Julien Lacaze, president of the Sites et Monum associationent. According to him, a historical monument is made to be visited.