Housing: Marine Le Pen places "national priority" at the heart of her program

Marine Le Pen intends to make housing "one of the major projects" of her potential five-year term. During her back-to-school speech in Hénin-Beaumont, in the Pas-de-Calais region, the National Rally candidate for the presidential election placed "national priority" at the center of her proposals.

"We will guarantee all French people, as is the practice in all countries of the world, a natural and just right. With us, the French, whatever their skin color or religion, their origin or their residence (...) will have priority in their own country," she declared.

This controversial approach would notably result in priority access to social housing being given to French citizens and in the reservation of personal housing assistance (APL) to them.

Repeal of the SRU law and sale of social housing

The far-right candidate also announced her intention to repeal the law relating to solidarity and urban renewal (SRU), which imposes social housing targets on certain municipalities.

The candidate also wants to allow the sale of "a certain number of social housing units to French citizens" in order to promote homeownership. She also plans to "evict delinquent families" from social housing.

"There is nothing, my dear friends, happier than the feeling of expressing harmony in one's home by being able to say 'I am home'," she asserted in defense of individual property.

Public land made available to builders

The policy proposed by Marine Le Pen aims to "free up construction, enhance the existing housing stock, and encourage and protect property ownership."

In this context, public land would be made available to developers free of charge. In return, these developers would be required to build "thousands of apartments" at affordable rents. The selection criteria for the land, developers, and projects involved were not specified in the speech.

The candidate also announced a "vast policy of transforming vacant offices into housing", in order to mobilize part of the unused office stock.

The ZAN and the DPE in the crosshairs

Marine Le Pen wants to abolish the zero net artificialization (ZAN) objective, which she describes as an "ideological norm." This mechanism regulates the consumption of natural, agricultural, and forest areas in local planning policies.

She also wants to put an end to the "absurd policy" of energy performance certificates (EPCs). These certificates assess the energy and climate performance of dwellings and notably determine the schedule for banning the rental of the most energy-intensive properties.

The exact nature of the reform envisaged to replace or modify the DPE has not been detailed.

A zero-interest loan to replace MaPrimeRénov'

Regarding energy renovation, Marine Le Pen reaffirmed her desire to replace MaPrimeRénov' with a scheme called "100% renovation".

This would take the form of a zero-interest loan to finance renovation work. Eligibility criteria, covered expenses, available funds, and repayment terms are yet to be determined.

"This presidential election will decide everything, either to let our country sink into the quicksand of habits and turpitudes, or the resurgence, the one we want and which will lead to the rebirth of France," the candidate declared.

She added that this "renaissance" would "not only be political and economic", but that it would "transform the way we live, inhabit and view our country".