It was simply after 7 p.m. on a Monday when employees on the Korian Les Amarantes nursing residence in Tours, southwest of Paris, found 92-year-old Yvette Brisset lifeless in her mattress. She had apparently choked on a madeleine — considered one of France’s famed scallop-shaped, lemon-flavored truffles.
The cake had been dropped at her earlier that night by a person named Alain Jousselin.
Jousselin, then 60, wasn’t a member of the family or good friend. He was a former firefighter who had purchased Brisset’s residence 25 years earlier via a little-known French property scheme often known as viager — and had been ready ever since to maneuver in, his lawyer, Abed Benjador, informed CNN.
In a viager sale, aged owners — usually of their 70s, 80s or 90s — promote their properties at a steep low cost, typically for half the market worth. In return, they obtain a month-to-month cost from the client. In most circumstances, they keep the suitable to stay within the residence for the remainder of their lives — an association often known as viager occupé. In different cases, the seller has already moved out on the time of sale, permitting the client to take instant possession of the property whereas persevering with the month-to-month funds — a setup often known as viager libre.
It’s half actual property, half roulette. Property listings usually embrace the vendor’s age alongside the asking worth. The older the vendor, the earlier the client may doubtlessly declare the house.
“In France, a 70-year-old man has a life expectancy of around 16 years, so the discount is often 50%,” stated Fréderic Coubronne, who runs a viager company in Paris. “Women live about five years longer, so a 75-year-old woman would have the same discount. For couples, the discount is even higher, since they tend to live longer together.”
The house she purchased is ideal. The proprietor simply has to die first
Jousselin had purchased Brisset’s household residence in Montbazon, simply south of Tours, in 1995. Ever since, he had been paying Brisset a month-to-month stipend of 500 euros — a complete of effectively over $150,000, at right this moment’s conversion charges, on prime of the preliminary buy sum. When she died, on May 13, 2019, suspicion rapidly turned towards him, his lawyer stated.
No one within the household knew Jousselin earlier than Brisset’s dying, her granddaughter, Emiline Dupoy, wrote in a letter revealed by French newspaper La Nouvelle Republique forward of Jousselin’s trial. “The only link between them was the viager.”
“It was a huge scandal,” Benjador informed CNN. “The nursing home staff claimed Jousselin locked the door behind him when he entered the room. After he left, they said they found Madame Brisset with madeleine crumbs all over her body.”
French media dubbed the case l’affaire de la madeleine. “At the heart of the trial is the viager property purchased in the 1990s,” the French outlet RTL reported.
Jousselin spent three years in pretrial detention earlier than the case first went to court docket in May 2022. He was acquitted by the Indre-et-Loire Court of Appeal, however prosecutors challenged the decision. Attorney General Denis Chaussetie-Laprée referred to as for a 20-year jail sentence, arguing that the killing of the aged girl had been “premeditated.”
But throughout the retrial in December 2023, held on the Loiret Court of Appeal, key testimony from nursing employees started to unravel, casting doubt on the unique narrative.
“I don’t know if my client killed her intentionally,” Benjador stated. “But I do know that the procedure was flawed, and much more complicated than the press made it seem. The viager issue overshadowed everything.”
On December 9, 2023, the homicide cost in opposition to Jousselin was downgraded to involuntary manslaughter. While prosecutors couldn’t show he supposed to kill the sufferer, the Loiret Court of Appeal accepted that Jousselin had given Brisset a madeleine — describing it as an act of “imprudence” immediately linked to her dying.
Jousselin was sentenced to a few years in jail and fined 30,000 euros, the court docket confirmed to CNN. “I’m somewhat relieved, but not entirely happy — I was still convicted, though I was facing much more serious charges,” he stated as he left the courtroom.
While trials like Jousselin’s involving viager gross sales are disturbing, they continue to be extraordinarily uncommon. And they haven’t dampened enthusiasm for the housing association — particularly amongst international consumers keen to select up French property at below-market costs.
“Over the past two years, I’ve had around a dozen international buyers — about half of them American,” stated Reza Nakhai, who owns a Paris-based company referred to as Viva Viager. “Many don’t hesitate to invest. It’s a secure, long-term bargain.”
For Americans dreaming of a pied-à-terre in Paris, viager could possibly be a golden ticket — in the event that they’re keen to play the lengthy sport.
In Saint-Germain-des-Prés, the stylish Left Bank enclave as soon as residence to Ernest Hemingway and Simone de Beauvoir, a 100-square-meter house now sells for a mean of $1.7 million. In Le Marais — a favourite amongst each the Parisian It crowd and American consumers — 2025 costs vary from $15,500 to $22,000 per sq. meter, based on actual property company Talvan’s International. But with viager, consumers can snap up prime actual property for lower than half that worth.
Homa Raevel, an American-Iranian investor and mom of 5, has purchased 4 viager properties in Paris. She first found the idea whereas dwelling between Europe and the US, in search of inventive methods to speculate.
“At first, it felt a little morbid,” Raevel informed CNN. “I kept thinking, ‘I don’t want to be happy when someone dies’. But I made it a point to meet every seller, hear their story. With viager, you’re helping older people stay in their homes while giving them financial security — it’s a win-win.”
When scouting a property, the primary issues Raevel says she seems for are location and format. “In France, especially in Paris, you often find kitchens at one end of the flat and dining rooms at the other, connected by narrow hallways,” she stated. “I look for apartments with high ceilings and an open floor plan, often in up-and-coming areas.”
But Raevel stated essentially the most essential issue isn’t the area itself — it’s the vendor. “I only buy if the seller seems to be living a happy life,” she stated. “If someone is dealing with family conflicts or selling under stressful circumstances, I’ll pass. The person needs to have good energy.”
The apply of viager itself dates again to Roman occasions. “Back then, elderly people would pass on property to their children or nephews in exchange for a small sum and the ability to continue living in their homes,” the agent Coubronne informed CNN.
In the early nineteenth century, Napoleon formalized the system — not solely in France however within the territories he conquered. “That’s why you also find viager-style arrangements in countries like Spain, Italy and parts of Belgium,” Coubronne stated.
Viager gross sales aren’t simply fashionable amongst peculiar residents — they’ve additionally attracted a few of France’s most outstanding figures. Former presidents Charles de Gaulle, Valérie Giscard d’Estaing and François Hollande all acquired properties via viager preparations. And it’s not simply the French embracing the apply. Hugh Hefner made headlines when he bought the Playboy Mansion to his neighbor for $100 million — half its $200 million itemizing worth — on one situation: he would stay there till the day he died.
In France, the centuries-old system is particularly fashionable amongst owners with out heirs.
“If I had children, I’d want them to inherit,” stated André Helman, a 74-year-old psychoanalyst who not too long ago bought his Paris house as a viager. “But I don’t, so this is the perfect solution — it lets me stay in my home and live comfortably on a steady income.”
Helman’s one-bedroom flat was bought for 250,000 euros — round half its market worth — by Ylla Heron, a 21-year-old style pupil.
“I don’t need to live here right now,” she informed CNN. “It’s for the future, in 20 or 30 years. Given the price and the surface area — 46 square meters in the center of Paris — it’s a real bargain.”
Perched on the ninth flooring of a contemporary constructing in Paris’ 14th arrondissement — a vibrant neighborhood south of the Seine, identified for its creative heritage, Haussmannian facades and basic café tradition — the house immediately charmed Heron. “It’s beautiful and cozy,” she stated. “There’s a big window that floods the space with light, and the view over the rooftops of Paris is magical. I can really imagine myself living here someday.”
The viager system isn’t with out its critics. Some see the system as morbid, on condition that the client’s funding will depend on the vendor’s demise. Helman isn’t fazed.
“People are uncomfortable with viager because of the death aspect,” he stated. “But for me, dying is a natural part of life. The idea that this charming young woman will eventually live in my home — it’s actually very pleasant to me.”
The system could show a well timed resolution for France’s quickly growing older inhabitants. As of January 2024, greater than 20% of French residents are over 65 — with 10% aged 75 and older — based on nationwide statistics company INSEE. By 2050, one in three residents might be over 65. As dwelling prices rise, securing secure funds in later life is turning into more and more pressing.
But viager isn’t with out threat for the client. In addition to paying a lump-sum down cost — poetically known as le bouquet — consumers should make month-to-month funds that might stretch many years.
“I always calculate for the seller living to 100,” Raevel informed CNN. “If they live beyond that, I might not make a profit. But as long as the market holds over the next 20 years, I’ll still come out ahead.”
Not all bets repay.
In some of the well-known circumstances, Jeanne Calment — who holds the file because the world’s longest-living particular person — signed a viager contract aged 90. She lived one other 32 years, outlasting the client by two. His household was legally required to proceed making month-to-month funds till Calment’s dying at 122.
“That’s the ultimate exception,” Nakhai informed CNN, laughing. “I’ve never seen anything like that with my clients. But it shows how human this business really is. I’ve been invited to the funerals of sellers by their families. Viager is more than a property transaction — it’s about trust and connection.”
For Raevel, the American investor, it’s additionally a matter of values.
“Buying a viager feels good because I know I’m genuinely helping someone,” she stated. “Many older people struggle to maintain the quality of life they had decades ago — they’re really suffering. This way, I’m supporting someone while securing a long-term home at a lower price. Why wouldn’t you take the bet?”