"We will arrange": when real estate agents circumvent the ban on visits

REPORTAGE

Among the sectors hoping for an upcoming easing of containment measures is real estate.

Because if we are authorized to go to the notary or the bank to request a loan, visits to property are prohibited during confinement.

This rule is little understood by the profession, which puts pressure on the government to obtain its abolition.

But some agencies did not wait to circumvent the measure, as Europe 1 has seen, by slipping into the shoes of a potential buyer in Paris.

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Get an apartment visit

"Hello, I'm calling you regarding the advertisement for the Blanche metro apartment ..." After calling an agency and asking for some information on an apartment for sale, we ask the fateful question: "Is it possible to visit it? "

The interlocutor lets out an embarrassed laugh, and ends up accepting without much difficulty.

"I'm going to make videos, send them to you. And if that's what you're looking for, then we'll work it out," she explains.

"So concretely we can have a visit?"

"Yes, so you can walk around the apartment."

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The limits of a virtual visit

If some real estate agents come to this, it is because they know full well that virtual tours are not enough.

"Beyond the crush which is essential in real estate, when looking for a property for sale or for rent, we need to push open the doors, open the windows, visit the neighborhood, see the light and the noise level of the accommodation, which is not possible today with the virtual visit, ”explains Yann Jéhanno, president of the LaForêt network, who specifies that he does not approve of the practice of some of his colleagues.

But is the game worth the candle?

Tuesday, at the microphone of Europe Soir, the Minister of SMEs, Alain Griset, promised a strengthening of controls.

And therefore potential sanctions.