The Paris town hall wishes to reduce the hyperconcentration of offices in the “golden triangle” of the capital by asking to integrate housing in the event of rehabilitation in certain office buildings.
Fewer offices and more housing in western Paris: the new bioclimatic local urban planning plan (PLU) of Paris, described by the right-wing opposition as “communist policy”, aims to rebalance the geography of tertiary real estate and social housing in the capital. A political tour de force.
“This PLU is not a haro on the office”, defended last week the former first deputy to the PS mayor of Paris, Emmanuel Grégoire, during the corporate real estate fair. The Parisian executive intends to break the tertiary hyperconcentration of the very chic “golden triangle” and its more than seven million m2 of offices, straddling the western districts and the center of the capital.
A “monofunctional drift” initiated in the 19th century but which kills neighborhood life and creates streets without administrators, argues the town hall, while Paris is already losing 10,000 inhabitants per year.
In the toolbox which comes into force at the start of 2025, the “pastillage” of 800 reserved addresses, including 300 office buildings as well as vacant or unsanitary housing, requires the creation of social housing in the event of a building permit application, failing which the town hall will be able to preempt.
“Scare away investors”
“The pastillage leads to a real depreciation of property and it is very complicated technically and financially to add housing in tertiary buildings,” criticizes Valérie Montandon (LR/Changer Paris), when Geoffroy Boulard (LR/ Union Capitale) denounces a “ communist policy of attack on private property” which risks “scaring away investors”.
Fabrice Allouche, president of the CBRE France consulting group, sees a risk of “tertiary gentrification” with prices that will “continue to rise”. “The city is very indebted and imposes on owners through the building permit the obligation to create housing, but it is an economic impasse,” he analyzes, comparing social housing to “4,000 euros per m2” and office real estate, which oscillates “between 18,000 and 25,000 euros per m2”.
Despite the general crisis in office real estate, the Parisian business district is in great health, at more than 1,000 euros per m2 per year for rentals.
“At 1,000 euros our offices are full, but at 100 euros in the suburbs, they are empty,” explains Jacques Baudrier, PCF deputy for housing.
The profits of Parisian office owners over the past twenty years have been totally atypical.”
To deploy its “territorial rebalancing”, between the east which is too well provided with HLM and the long-refractory west, Paris is banking on areas of “hyper deficit” in social housing. As soon as a developer builds 500 m2 there, he will have to reserve half of it for social housing. The executive is also targeting 40% social and intermediate housing by 2035.
A precariously balanced alchemy
Third instrument, “functional” diversity requires any restructuring of offices of more than 5,000 m2 in western Paris to devote 10% of the surface area to housing.
“The real question is housing,” insists Fatoumata Koné, president of the environmental group.
“We will be able to continue to work well in Paris when we can also find decent accommodation there.”
To create social housing without new land available, the City has released 500 million euros in 2024 to buy buildings, “more than the State budget”, welcomes Jacques Baudrier, while 26% of private housing in Paris are “either second homes or vacant housing”, contributing to the rise in prices. A policy, however, considered too wasteful by the right-wing opposition.
“We have spent a lot of time to open up the field of possibilities but the City will buy very little,” replies Emmanuel Grégoire, who believes “more in functional diversity” to change the situation.
“It’s an alchemy with a precarious balance which is based on the ability to have a mix of uses,” continues the candidate for the 2026 municipal elections. He recalls how American cities “try to put residents back in their city centers”.
For town planner François Déalle-Facquez, the executive “reaffirms its 'quarter-hour city' policy to bring essential workers closer to their workplace.” A city “oriented on its neighborhoods” which “is no longer a world city”.
“Large real estate investors feel robbed by these measures, but it is also the nature of planning to review usage rights in the light of broader public policies,” he adds.
