Cosmopole project

The “Cosmopole” project was carried out on the site of the former University of Pharmacy and Medicine. Built in 1892, the neoclassical style facades, dating from the 19th century, have been preserved and an important work on the masonry, in particular to restore the lightly colored ribbon joints as well as the original mosaics, has been carried out.

The entire project, located in a partly student neighborhood, was carried out in order to maintain the traffic flow and noise impact for local residents.

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These 15 RSL dwellings are part of a mixed program on the site of the former University of Medicine and Pharmacy, whose 19th-century facades have been preserved.

Cosmopole is now a 20,000m² landscaped garden that includes a 127-room hotel, an art gallery, the British cultural center, 214 parking spaces, 210 homes, including 83 free housing, social housing and 15 Real Solidarity Lease (RSL) dwellings.

The 15 social homeownership dwellings in RSL are intended for households with incomes below the social rental-accession loan (PSLA in french). Their price per m² is limited to €2,100/m² (compared with €4,500 to €4,700/m² in the open market) in order to encourage the return of a social mix in the central districts of Lille.

Under the SLO/RSL scheme, the land is owned by an SLO (the OFSML in French, in this case), while the households taking out the SLO/RSL acquire rights in rem for a length of 18 to 99 years.

According to the initial feedback from households, and although they do not own the land for which they pay a fee for its occupation, the scheme is rather well received with regard to the location of the housing (located in the center of Lille) and their typology (2, 3, 4 and 5 room-apartments). Without the housing company’s ownership of the land, these households would only have been able to access homeownership in sectors far from the city center and in sectors with poor public transport links.

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At the beginning of 2021, the OFSML launched a study to define the possibilities and modalities for the participation of inhabitants in the OFSML (cf. building on the Command-line tool model with a view to involving households in the SLO)

The system is currently being deployed throughout France (metropolitan France and the overseas departments). To date, 54 SLO have been approved and nearly one hundred RSL housing units delivered (Lille, Espelette, Kremlin-Bicêtre, etc.). This dynamic is intended to grow and, by 2024, it is projected that, based on the programs identified with the SLOs approved by the Regional Directorate for the Environment, Planning and Housing  (the DREAL in French), approximately 20,000 housing units will be in SLO.