Gov/en/Portal:R&D/Pilot-Real-Estate-Restoration
💡 In simple words: This page is about a test project to fix up old empty buildings. Skilled builders who don't have much money team up with people who do, they repair a castle or an old theater together, and everyone shares fairly when it is sold.
🎯 In 20 seconds (scientific summary): A pilot exploring a "combo-contract" for real estate restoration, based on the "Bâtir Groupé" cooperative model. It bundles social shares, a lease agreement and a restoration mandate, with a two-step payment: a modest immediate payment plus deferred shares of the resale value once the renovated property sells.
| Type | Pilot (combo-contract) |
| Model | "Bâtir Groupé" cooperative |
| Assets | Castles, theaters, old buildings |
| Contracts bundled | Social shares · Lease · Restoration mandate |
| Payment | Two-step (immediate partial + resale share) |
Across Europe, remarkable buildings stand empty while skilled craftspeople lack the capital to restore them, and investors hesitate to carry the renovation risk alone. Nobody in that triangle is at fault; the pieces simply do not connect. This pilot explores how a WikiDeal combo-contract could connect them: regions rich in craftsmanship but low in capital, matched with high-capital regions that want renovated properties without taking the initial renovation risk.
The need: an illustrative use case
Imagine a small cooperative of stonemasons and carpenters near an abandoned theater. They have the skills to restore it but cannot pre-finance months of work. Elsewhere, a group of supporters would gladly own a share of the restored building but has no way to organize the work or share the risk fairly. The combo-contract aims to give both sides a single, transparent agreement in which each role, payment and risk is spelled out in advance.
The combo-contract architecture
This pilot uses the WikiDeal framework to bundle three aspects into one smart agreement:
- Social Shares (parts sociales in the cooperative)
- Lease Agreement (contrat de bail)
- Restoration Mandate (contrat de restauration)
The two-step payment mechanism
This is the core of the Restoration Mandate:
- Step 1: Immediate partial payment (modest amount) negotiated with the cooperative's delegates (who acquire the ruins/land). Paid upon immediate validation of work.
- Step 2: Deferred payment via percentage of resale. The craftspeople receive "shares of the resale value". The rest of the money is unlocked only when the renovated property is sold on the market.
Who does what
- Craftspeople carry out the restoration and receive immediate partial payment plus resale shares.
- The cooperative's delegates acquire the property, negotiate terms and validate the work.
- Supporters / future buyers provide capital and receive a renovated property without carrying the initial renovation risk.
Smart configuration & amendments
Just like the babysitting use case, manual heavy negotiation is replaced by WikiDeal's configuration options: flexibility built into the contract rather than added by lawyers afterwards.
Under the "Amendment" and "Adaptation" lifecycle stage, partners can trigger:
- Loan options (options de prêt)
- Debt forgiveness / claim abandonment (abandon de créance) if the property takes too long to sell.
Why it matters for the ecosystem
This pilot illustrates the four WikiDeal aims in a complex market: flexibility (configurable combo-contracts and amendments), lower cost (no extractive intermediary between craftspeople and capital), citizen participation (a cooperative structure where members decide), and transparency (every payment step defined and visible in the shared contract).