Housing: tenants are worse off than owners, according to INSEE

At the beginning of 2024, 57% of households own their main residence and 40% rent, either in the private sector (23%) or in the social housing sector (17%).

The share of homeowners increases gradually with age, reaching 76% among those aged 75 and over, while 80% of households where the reference person is under 30 are tenants, mainly in the private sector.

Among those under 65, couples are "significantly more often homeowners", especially when they have "one or two children" (71% homeowners) but less often when they have three or more children (56%), the latter being more likely to be tenants in the social housing sector.

The proportion of homeowners is lowest among single-parent families, who on average have lower incomes and are more often tenants in the social housing sector (36%), as well as among single people (33%), who are more often tenants in the private sector.

The surface area of ​​main residences has "slightly increased" in ten years, rising from an average of 90,6m2 in 2013 to 92,5m2 in 2024.

Houses represent 56% of primary residences and 80% of homeowners live in a house, compared to only 22% of renters.

Homeowners generally have larger houses than renters, and apartments, which represent 44% of primary residences, are conversely smaller.

Although the average surface area per inhabitant has increased, there are significant disparities, particularly between tenants (approximately 38m2 per inhabitant) and owners (69m2).

Tenants also live "significantly more often" in overcrowded housing than owners and report defects in their housing more often.

This is particularly true for heating (42% of tenants in the private sector have difficulties compared to 26% of homeowners) but also for cooling their homes. More than a third also consider their rent too high.

Tenants, who often live in apartments in denser communities, are also three times more likely to suffer from noise.

The "housing" survey has been carried out regularly by INSEE since 1955. The last one took place from September 2023 to September 2024.

Illustrative image of the article via Depositphotos.com.