Hey @reeflings, I searched for a similar question but nothing came up in the results. If this has been asked before, please direct me to that thread.
Quick question for advice. When you went to immotheker or any other place for your financial check:
What’s the exact info you took with you about The Reef?
Has all the relevant info been neatly collected some place already? Maybe in a thread on edgeryders or some document on nextcloud? @VickyVanEyck, maybe you have something others can use from when you talked with Triodos on behalf of The Reef?
During your meeting, was there anything that turned out to be super important but you hadn’t thought about before?
Anything else I should know before Jolan and I go for our final check?
Just my personal experience (in Etterbeek) with Immotheker: The guy did not need any info on the project, the fact that it was a cohousing, would potentially involve people going to fond de logement, that we were looking to buy under an option and that we had nothing “concrete” yet meant that I became the “most complex case he’d ever had” and he assured me no bank would give me a loan at this stage and that later on, he could only think of Triodos (and maybe later this year vdk, once they took over NewB). But I’ve heard other people had better experiences with other branches of Immotheker and I guess it’s still valid for general financial advice. Good luck!
i went to see the immotheker today, and it was really a nice guy, excited about our project. Caro and Quentin also went to see him. (Not 100% sure that what he says is correct but worthwhile to further investigate maybe…He has been working in a bank before and he is 40 something, so he certainly knows something).
Maybe some of you know this, but for recent and new members:
Triodos seems to be the only bank offering a formula for cohousing projects. There is even a benefit if there is an inclusion unit (he wasn’t sure if that was an extra benefit or allready included in the cohousing benefit). He never did a cohousing and never concluded a loan with Triodos.
With Triodos you can only get a fixed loan on 10 years, if you want to go for 20-25 years, you need to go with the flexible formula (sth native Belgians seem to hate he says)
I asked if it is worthwhile to go to other banks to try to get a beneficial rate as we are a group of people. He said it is worth trying and he proposed to do it himself. He will be calling Triodos on Monday and will try Belfius and/or Fortis (ING is for him a nogo).
I asked if we could do it ourselves: he said he thinks he can get a better deal, he also admitted he gets 1 % of the whole loan as a commission (so yeah).
I also asked about the ‘why do you need to have a permit to get a loan for only the land’ (sth i seem to have understood from the last plenary): what I understood is ‘there needs to be A permit that says that building is allowed’, it doesn’t need to be ‘our permit’. So in case of JET-14, he said it would not be a problem to get a loan for just the land, as there is the Matexi permit. I asked also , for another site, say there is no permit, could a signed promess (what caro was talking about yesterday in the meeting with the architects) be enough: he said: ‘it’s something’, i guess this means: it’s negotiable and probably depends on the bank. The idea behind is that the bank want to have some security that the value of the land won’t drop drastically, meaning you have to have some kind of proof that you can construct on it
@reef-finance : i checked the excell with all members: i count 14 full members (representing 11 households) + 2 ‘inclusion’ people => so right now 16 people / 13 households
=> do you have any idea how many would take a loan
=> do you have any idea how many would take a loan as a group (e.g. me, i have a loan going with another bank, which will continue after i buy a unit at the reef, so it might be more interesting for me to go for a loan with that same bank).
For people who are still planning to go to the immotheker: let me know (i think it’s would be better to all go to the same one, the fact that caro/quention went yesterday and me today made him even more motivated and this one seems to be really caring about our project. He speaks french and dutch, don’t know about english):
That’s great info! Thanks a lot @els for posting it here!
Small detail: I would suggest to remove the name and contact details of the person you are quoting, as the information contians his opinions and he didn’t consent to these being shared online.
I received an email from the nice immotheker guy :
Bonjour Quentin,
Je vous écris à la suite de notre rendez-vous de la semaine dernière.
Avez-vous eu des informations quant au terrain que vous souhaitez acquérir ?
Selon moi la banque TRIODOS sera le meilleur partenaire pour financer votre projet, étant donné leurs tarifs attractifs (-0.90% sur le taux de base) et leur expérience dans le financement d’habitations groupées.
J’ai eu l’occasion de rencontrer Els qui participe également à votre projet.
J’ai donc eu l’idée d’élaborer une offre spéciale avec une « incentive ».
Toutes les personnes qui participeront à votre projet et qui passeront par notre bureau (et donc par TRIODOS) pour financer leur acquisition recevront des bons d’achats.
A ce sujet auriez-vous une idée de bon d’achats à utiliser dans le commerce équitable, durable, éco, etc…
D’avance je vous remercie,
Cordialement,
It would be interesting to investigate this lead. I called him today, he is super enthusiast for our project. I’ll keep him posted. Don’t hesitate to contact me if you want his contact (I have his approval).
In the near future, if several of us opt to go for Triodos (through Immotheker), we’ll be able to tell him which shop(s) to get vouchers from.
@reef-finance: pinging you to make sure you are receiving the message above on the Immotheker’s offer.
On a similar topic the mighty @marcelh reports the following:
Compared to november 2023, interest rates for loans have dropped by 0.5% (from about 3.8% to 3.3%). It is expected that in 2024 rates will further go down so that it is not recommended to choose for a fix rate.
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