Housing construction still slow in France

According to this study, France (excluding Mayotte) had 1 million homes on January 2024, 38,2, compared to 37,8 million in January 2023.

Over the past 40 years, the housing stock has grown by an average of 1,1% per year. However, this growth has been gradually slowing down since 2010: from an average of 1,2% per year between 2000 and 2009, it has stagnated since 2018 at +0,9% per year.

The stock is made up of 31,4 million main residences, or 82,2% of housing, a percentage which has varied little over the past 40 years (82,6% in 1983).

3,7 million (9,8%) of the homes are second homes and 3,1 million (8,2%) are vacant.

"The number of main residences is increasing faster than the population, because households tend to be smaller and smaller, due to separations or the ageing of the population. We therefore need more housing to house the same number of inhabitants," Aurélie Goin, head of the housing and heritage division of INSEE, told AFP.

The share of owners of their main residence, on the other hand, recorded a new slight decline. Stable at around 58% since 2010, after having increased since 1982 when it was at 50%, this share fell back to 57,2% in 2023 and to 57% in 2024.

The share of renting households remained stable at 40,3%, compared to 40,2% last year, as did the share of households housed free of charge (2,6%).

The majority of households, 54,8%, live in houses. This type of housing is the majority among primary residences (55,8%), as among secondary residences (53,2%), underlines the Insee.

The countryside and towns of less than 100.000 inhabitants are largely over-represented in the stock of second homes, while large cities and especially the Paris metropolitan area are very under-represented.

Thus, 4,4% of second homes are located in the Paris metropolitan area, compared to 16,5% in municipalities located far from the city, while this urban unit includes 14,8% of all housing in metropolitan France.

Illustrative image of the article via Depositphotos.com.