At the USH Congress, Chairman of the Executive Board of the SNI Group André Yché and EIB Vice-President Ambroise Fayolle announced the signature of a EUR 200m loan for modernisation and energy efficiency refurbishment work in 25 000 social housing units. This new financing has received an EU guarantee under the Investment Plan for Europe (commonly known as the Juncker Plan), and is the fourth operation signed between the EIB and SNI Group.
The project, which has a total cost of EUR 770m, will benefit from a EUR 200m EIB loan. It will consist of the refurbishment of 25 000 homes under the aegis of the SNI Group's social housing companies (ESHs) in areas under high pressure (75% of which are in Île-de-France).
The loan will make it possible to increase the volume of operations by speeding up refurbishments that are more ambitious than originally planned, improving the quality of the housing units and reducing heating energy costs. In addition to the environmental and socioeconomic impact, refurbishing these homes and bringing them up to standard will contribute to economic growth in their areas due to the scale of the work undertaken.
The operation enables the SNI Group to meet the objectives set by the law on the energy transition for green growth regarding the energy efficiency refurbishment of social housing.
At the loan agreement signing ceremony, EIB Vice-President Ambroise Fayolle said: “I am delighted to sign this new financing with the SNI Group to develop social housing in France with the dual objective of improving housing quality and cutting energy costs for tenants. A total of 25 000 homes will benefit from the project by 2021. This operation promoting climate action, the energy efficiency of buildings and improvements to peoples’ daily lives is at the heart of the priorities of the EU and the Juncker Plan, and will also make an impact on employment on the ground. This financing meets the objectives of the investment plan announced by the Prime Minister on Monday, which counts the environmental transition as one of its priorities.”
Chairman of the Executive Board of the SNI Group André Yché said: “The group's EU strategy is coming together piece by piece. Following financial partnerships with the EIB on affordable housing and with the CEB on support for emergency housing, French social housing will also now benefit from EU assistance.”
Among the four operations financed by the EIB, the Bank directly supported the SNI Group by providing EUR 550m for its affordable and emergency housing construction programme in 2015. In 2016, the EIB granted EUR 500m in Juncker Plan financing for the SOLINTER ACTIFS (Société pour le logement intermédiaire – Affordable housing company) fund managed by the SNI Group.
This financing brings the total amount of EIB funding for housing in France to EUR 2.7bn since 2015.
The Juncker Plan is continuing to gather momentum in France, with a running total of 99 operations providing EUR 7.5bn in EIB Group financing set to mobilise EUR 35.4bn in additional investments on the ground.
Photographer: Anne-Cécile Auguin ©EIB
Download original