Habitat et Humanisme wants to fight against vacant housing with solidarity land companies

In a dismemberment of ownership, the bare owner holds strict ownership but is a usufructuary who has the right of use, that is to say occupation and management and therefore the right to receive rental income.

The jointly owned property company designated as the usufructuary of a dwelling thus takes care of the work, rental management and all other requirements linked to the occupation of a dwelling.

The "big difference" with existing rental intermediation schemes and incentives for work on vacant housing "is that we take care of everything," Pascal Isoard-Thomas, director general of the Habitat et Humanisme federation, explained to AFP.

"The owner becomes the bare owner and is detached from the property: he no longer has property tax to pay, nor any co-ownership charges or constraints, the property company takes care of the work and returns a refurbished property at the end of the usufruct period," he explains.

The owner could perhaps even benefit from a tax rebate if the contribution of this property to the real estate company were considered a donation to a charity, which currently entitles the owner to a tax reduction. This principle, however, is "not a given" at this stage, but Habitat et Humanisme is defending this legislative change.

Habitat et Humanisme has 500 properties under usufruct and wants to "accelerate", with the "objective, within 5 years, of transforming 25.000 vacant homes into housing solutions for people in difficulty, including students and essential workers".

He called on businesses and local authorities attending the low-carbon city summit, organized by the Palladio Foundation, to "take action": "We have a method, a legal framework, we need more solidarity-based land."

In France, three million homes are identified as vacant, according to the government's Lovac database on vacant housing, including 1,1 million that have been empty for more than two years.