In Lyon, the housing crisis is fueling the imagination of candidates

"It took me about two or three months to find my first apartment," Justine Serre-Senecloze, 20, who came from the Drôme region to study in Lyon, told AFP. "It was incredibly complicated and incredibly stressful because I was going to start school in September and I had nowhere to sleep..."

After Paris, Lyon is on the podium of cities where it is particularly difficult, and expensive, to rent an apartment, especially for students.

"Housing is the primary crisis in our metropolis: students are giving up their studies, young employees are unable to leave their parents' homes, companies are unable to recruit due to a lack of housing, and people are homeless," summarized outgoing Green mayor Grégory Doucet during his New Year's address.

At the National Federation of Real Estate (FNAIM) of the Rhône, it is noted that "the volume of rental advertisements is collapsing", with the explanation being the rise of furnished tourist accommodation, the increase in rates which blocks first-time buyers from purchasing or the withdrawal of private investors.

What distinguishes Lyon is that the city had previously experienced strong dynamism. "The abruptness of the slowdown meant that people were not used to it, were not ready," observes Frédéric Berthet, president of the local branch of FNAIM.

Consequently, according to an Ipsos poll for the Ebra group on February 4, a majority are dissatisfied with the municipality's actions regarding housing.

"Dogmatic"

The issue has therefore become central to the campaign in France's third-largest city. But while the observation is shared, the candidates' responses are diametrically opposed.

Grégory Doucet, who supports the rent control measures put in place since the end of 2021 by his Green Party colleagues at the Métropole, wants to establish a "public housing service" if he is re-elected.

He promises to create a system where the city can act as guarantor for those in need, as well as the creation of municipal home insurance, like in Montreuil or Paris, through a contract between the local authority and an insurer. Regarding social housing, he aims to increase its share to 30% of the housing stock by 2040.

Former OL boss Jean-Michel Aulas, the right-wing and center candidate and the clear favorite in the polls, wants to first abandon the rent control mechanism which he believes stems from a "dogmatic reading of the economy".

This is a way to distinguish himself from his opponents, even though he promises to replace the system with "a rent moderation charter", which is mandatory and includes "targeted controls against abuses".

"Emergency"

Above all, the business leader is betting on the construction of new housing. To achieve this, "building permit processing must not be delayed," but appeals that slow down construction sites must also be minimized, advocates Michel Le Faou, a specialist on the issue within the candidate's team.

The two sides agree on the need for renovation. For "decent housing," Grégory Doucet proposes a municipal fund to adapt housing to the heat.

In line with her party's position, the left-wing Anaïs Belouassa-Cherifi made headlines with her proposal to requisition all vacant housing, which she estimates at 5.600. "When there is a social emergency in the city, solutions must be found," she said, defending an "ambitious" measure.

She also wants to strengthen rent control with a specific service in charge of checks, and to develop student housing in response to the deficit of the Crous (10.000 places in student residences for 180.000 students, according to Unef Lyon).

The RN candidate Alexandre Dupalais, who says he is "philosophically against" rent control but does not want to "unfreeze the rents of those who benefit from it all at once", regrets "socialist laws that do not protect owners" and promises to abolish the latest increase in property tax.