New French Levitt

Frenchmen created and built the Statue of Liberty. Other Frenchmen designed the city of Washington and part of New Orleans. And what have American architects and builders given to France? Answer: Levittown.

Since the mid-1960s, clusters of split-level houses have risen around Paris, looking much like suburban U.S. housing developments. Many have been built by two U.S. companies, Levitt & Sons and Kaufman & Broad. Now an heir of a famous French family is imitating the Levittown builders with great success. He is Maxime Breguet, 29, son of the founder of Breguet Aviation, which built, among many other planes, the Breguet 14 flown by the Lafayette escadrille in World War I.

In less than two years, Breguet has put together a company, retaining more than half of the stock himself, that has revenues of $16 million and profits of $2.5 million. His chief product is a five-bedroom brick and tile-roof house, containing wall-to-wall carpets, a fully equipped kitchen and a wine cave. Price, including a quarter-acre lot: $50,000. Late last year Breguet completed a 350-house development. At present he has three subdivisions under construction and another three on the planning boards, totaling 2,050 homes.

Breguet built up a business fast by taking advantage of his many assets: family name, top schooling in both the U.S. and France, wealthy friends, French tax laws and a building boom. He earned an M.B.A. from the Harvard business school in 1968 and then returned to France in hopes of starting his own enterprise. Says Breguet: "A few years ago, a young European entrepreneur would go to the U.S., see what was to be done and stay there to do it. But now you go to the U.S., see what there is to do and come back here to do it better."

Wisely, Breguet spent six months working in Paris as a production manager for Kaufman & Broad to learn about the nuts, bolts and nails of building. After leaving, he borrowed $15 million from friends, got another $10 million from French banks and obtained building permits from local officials: "They would rather see a Frenchman get the contracts than some American giant," he says. Breguet also got a lift from French tax laws: to stimulate construction, the government has cut the corporate tax rate for new builders from 50% to 15% for their first seven years, provided they plow back their profits. Breguet formed his own construction outfit and builds only three to five models per project, keeping costs low by standardizing room layouts and construction materials.

Breguet benefits because France badly needs modern housing; for example, more than a third of Paris housing has no indoor toilets. Now Frenchmen can afford to buy new homes. The country has the fastest growing economy in the Common Market (TIME, Dec. 6), a fact that has become obvious to Breguet. Recently he has had to attach two-car garages to many of his homes.

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