Housing crisis: town halls desperately seek vacant properties to re-let

As of January 1, 2021, 10,6% of private housing in Paris was vacant (120.500 homes), including 20.380 completely empty for at least two years, according to the latest available data provided by the Ministry of Ecological Transition.

And the phenomenon has increased with 12.061 more vacant homes over the previous two years.

Paris City Hall estimates the number of vacant homes at 128.000 and the number of second homes at 134.000, making "underoccupied housing the most significant factor in the housing crisis in Paris," according to Jacques Baudrier, the Communist deputy in charge of housing at Paris City Hall.

"The proportion of vacant housing is increasing in all areas of high demand, including Paris, the Côte d'Azur and the Basque coast," he continues.

In other major cities where the difficulty of finding housing has increased in recent years, Marseille had 2021 homes vacant for more than two years in 19.400, or 4% of the total stock, Nice has more than 4.000 in its private sector and Nantes has seen their number explode by 30% in two years.

Within the Aix-Marseille metropolitan area, "vacant housing is a priority in public housing policies," assures Didier Ytier, LR vice-president in charge of housing.

"We tried to work to understand the causes" of the vacancy by contacting owners and offering them "immediate support," he explained to AFP.

The result of these discussions: "it is more modest owners who give up" when faced with major work to be carried out or who fear inconvenience by renting out their accommodation.

Entire buildings in Nice

In Paris, there is "a generational effect," adds Jacques Baudrier: "people who became homeowners in the 1990s for cheap or people who inherited a property, who are now elderly and who are bothered by rental management." According to him, this represents "several tens of thousands of vacant homes."

Entire buildings can remain empty while "joint ownership disputes after inheritance are settled," adds Anthony Borré, first deputy mayor of Nice, believing that when owners default, "the public authorities must defend their prerogatives."

In an attempt to get the owners to budge, he brandished the threat of expropriation, via a declaration of public utility. Since 2020, Nice City Hall has pre-empted 19 properties to put up to 311 homes back on the market.

Less in favor of the idea of ​​"requisitioning housing," David Ytier wants to strengthen aid schemes for energy renovation and the fight against substandard housing to support owners who fear not being within the required standards.

"We are developing the rental permit, it is a free dialogue for the owner which allows them to have an opinion from the public authorities saying 'it's fine you can rent' or 'this work must be done'," explains the elected official, who also mentions expropriations in the event of inaction which risks leading to a new tragedy, like the collapse of buildings on rue d'Aubagne in Marseille in 2018.

Aix-Marseille and Paris also use rental intermediation: accommodation is rented by an association which sublets it to households eligible for social housing.

This scheme is struggling to attract interest in Paris, where Jacques Baudrier would like to triple the tax on vacant homes and align the tax on second homes. He hopes to bring 100.000 homes back onto the market.

In a report published Thursday, the Court of Auditors criticized the lack of effectiveness of current measures to combat vacancies and recommended that greater account be taken of the different situations of territories and owners.

The Sages of Rue Cambon considered that "it is mainly the communities (...) who will be able to act most effectively."

Illustrative image of the article via Depositphotos.com.