A young middle-class couple can say thank you to Northvolt: the Swedish company bought their single-family home for three times the price they had paid for it less than five years earlier, an “out of the ordinary” situation.
According to public documents consulted by our Bureau of Investigation, the household purchased a charming century-old house located near the Richelieu River in 2019 for $429,000.
The electrician and the teacher were then far from suspecting that the largest private project in the modern history of Quebec was going to land in their backyard… and disrupt – positively – their financial future.
Photo Pascal Dugas Bourdon/Agence QMI
The century-old house offers an impressive view of the Richelieu River.
Indeed, a few months after the Legault government’s announcement of the arrival of the battery factory on the South Shore, the couple sold the residence for $1.3 million to Northvolt, three times the amount invested. four and a half years earlier. This is the second largest transaction in Saint-Basile-le-Grand in 2023 for a single-family home.
A laughable price
“If I had listed this house at $1.3 million, I probably would have been laughed at,” says Mélanie Bergeron, a real estate broker in the region.
According to her, everything indicates that the young couple won the “jackpot thanks to Northvolt” and that they obtained this prize because their residence was “in the way” of the mega-factory, also heavily subsidized by the governments of the Quebec and Canada.
“There are properties whose value has doubled since the pandemic, but to triple, it really takes a particular context,” explains Mme Bergeron.
Photo Pascal Dugas Bourdon
This house with 6 bedrooms and a double garage was sold a few thousand dollars more than the one purchased by Northvolt in Saint-Basile-le-Grand in 2023.
A sign that the sum offered by Northvolt last December gave the young family a serious helping hand, the latter managed to buy their next property for some $850,000… without having to take out a mortgage first.
Too close to the factory
The mayor of Saint-Basile-le-Grand indicates that he has not heard of any issues related to this sale. “As far as I know, it was done over the counter and it suited the family,” said Yves Lessard.
For its part, Northvolt claims to have acquired the house because of its proximity to the factory. She wants to keep the building intact and plans to give it a function linked to the business.
Courtesy Saint-Basile-le-Grand
“We will keep the house in order to transform it into a conference venue and residence for employees and external consultants,” explained spokesperson Emmanuelle Rouillard-Moreau. Work will be carried out to adapt it to the needs of the company.
As for the price paid, Northvolt claims to have obtained an estimate from an independent firm “in order to agree on a sale price with the owners”.
The couple in question declined our interview request. In a written statement, former owner Jeremy Lapointe indicated that he had good relations with the Swedish company and “felt a desire on the part of Northvolt to do things well”. He also indicated that he still lives there at the moment, despite the sale made four months earlier.
– With the collaboration of Philippe Langlois
