The French are well housed. This statement will bristle anyone in charge of emergency accommodation or facing the endless lists of applicants for social housing. However, when we take a step back, it appears that the French are among the best housed in the various OECD countries.
France has a relatively low rate of overcrowding (6% compared to 11% in the OECD), helped by the relatively small size of households. Likewise, it ranks second among countries with the lowest percentage of low-income tenants spending more than 40% of their income on rent (17% compared to 35% in the OECD). Finally, the average commute time is lower than the OECD average (twenty-three versus thirty minutes), suggesting that a large number of people can afford to live relatively close to their workplace . Satisfaction with housing stood on average at 7.7 out of 10 in 2020, with obviously a disparity depending on the age of the respondent. Housing comfort improved between 2013 and 2020 according to INSEE, with damp, noisy and dark housing decreasing. Finally, greenhouse gas emissions for heating and cooling French homes were 21% lower than the European Union average.
An insufficient figure to meet the needs of a population which continues to grow
The reason for this overall satisfaction? A considerable effort to build new housing. 19% of the French housing stock was produced after the year 2000 compared to 12% in Germany or 14% in Sweden. France has 7.3 million more inhabitants since 2000 when the United Kingdom is more populated by 9.5 million people. Over the period, we produced 2.5 times more residential square meters. It's no surprise that 51% of low-income renters in Britain spend more than 40% of their income on rent.
-So why talk about France's housing crisis? Because our country has decided, voluntarily, to restrict the supply of housing. On the one hand, the number of net housing units added to the stock – a figure lower than the housing units delivered gross of destruction, itself lower than construction starts, itself lower than urban planning authorizations – will remain permanently around 220 000 housing units. This figure is insufficient to meet the needs of a population which continues to grow and whose dishabitation and concentration around metropolitan and coastal areas are accelerating.
An environmental transition in housing to the detriment of social impacts
The consequences are known. The vacancy and turnover rates of social and private rental stocks will continue to fall. The pressure will be transferred to new tenants, students, households in the process of separating or mobile workers. On the other hand, the environmental transition of housing is occurring to the detriment of social impacts. Let's imagine that all housing estimated in classes F and G on January 1, 2022 (i.e. 5.2 million) joined class D, we would reduce France's annual carbon footprint by 0.56%. In return, there are indecent accommodations which will be withdrawn from rental, which will result in an increase in rents and over-occupancy of accommodations. If the least efficient housing is occupied by low-income households and the continued rise in energy prices penalizes them, the contraction in rental supply threatens them even more. Finally, the sudden end to access to property will not be without long-term consequences. As a reminder, the percentage of households that own their main residence has remained unchanged since 2004, at 57%, when we experienced the lowest interest rates in economic history.
