Rent control, a point of contention in the municipal elections

The debate surrounding rent control continues to deeply divide housing stakeholders. On one side, Manuel Domergue, director of studies at the Foundation for Housing the Disadvantaged, believes that the system "has led to a real moderation of rents" and that it "is overwhelmingly supported by tenants."

Conversely, Loïc Cantin, president of the National Federation of Real Estate (FNAIM), criticizes a "demagogic" tool that "is driving investors away" from housing, contributing, according to him, to weakening the private rental market.

Introduced in 2018 in so-called high-demand areas, rent control returned to the forefront of the news in December, with the National Assembly's review and subsequent adoption of a bill aimed at making the system permanent and expanding it. This decision has reignited the debate between those who support rent regulation and those who favor a more liberalized market.

For Annaïg Le Meur, Renaissance MP for Finistère, the issue is emerging as a key challenge in the municipal elections "in large cities and tense areas", but also in municipalities where the framework is already applied and could be called into question in the event of a change in the municipal majority.

The question also arises in several major cities regarding extending the system to neighboring municipalities, where rent increases are also being felt. To date, approximately 70 municipalities have implemented rent control, including large cities governed by left-wing parties such as Paris, Lyon, and Lille, but also some right-wing municipalities, particularly in the Basque Country.

For Thierry Repentin, co-chair of the Housing Commission of the Association of Mayors of France, the framework "is a tool that has been used wisely" and "it should not be turned into a demagogic debate".

At the local level, positions clash sharply. In Bordeaux, where rent control has been in effect since 2022, the issue is shaping the municipal campaign. Stéphane Pfeiffer, the city's deputy mayor for housing, defends a "political choice" in a city where "more than 70% of residents" are renters and where "many people struggle to find housing because rents are too high."

France Unbowed, which is fielding a list to the left of the Green mayor Pierre Hurmic, wants to go further by strengthening controls. Conversely, former Macronist minister Thomas Cazenave, the main opponent of the incumbent mayor, considers the system "complex and ineffective."

The same sentiment was echoed by center-right candidate Philippe Dessertine, who believes that the regulations "actually exacerbate the problem of excessively high rents." He particularly lamented that "healthcare workers at the hospital have to sleep in their cars."

"Good deal"

On the ground, the effects of the program remain a subject of debate. For a Bordeaux real estate agent, the impact on the 265.000 residents is tangible: "There really is a before and after." According to her, "Overall, it worked quite well. Before, young people with complicated situations ended up in apartments in a deplorable state for exorbitant prices."

Alice, 27, who did not wish to have her name mentioned, signed a lease in the spring for a 42 m³ apartment in downtown Bordeaux, for a monthly rent of 750 euros, exactly corresponding to the authorized ceiling.

"Coming from Paris, I was quite pleased to see the size of the space I could rent for that price!", she told AFP.

According to data from a-urba, the urban planning agency of the Bordeaux metropolitan area, the median rent increased about half as fast as inflation between 2022 and 2024. On the other hand, Alice admits to having "been really surprised by the high number of applicants" for each ad.

The FNAIM (National Federation of Real Estate Agents) is warning of a drying up of rental properties due to rent control. However, available studies present conflicting findings. The private observatory Clameur asserts that "rent control has no effect on rents and penalizes the rental supply" in the private sector.

Conversely, the Paris Urban Planning Workshop (Apur) indicates that the scheme resulted in an average saving of 1.694 euros for Parisian tenants between July 2023 and June 2024. The organization also specifies that "no lasting decrease in the number of advertisements appears to be directly attributable to the regulation".

Finally, real estate data specialist PriceHubble observes "comparable decreases in (advertising) volumes between cities with or without regulation", as well as a "more contained increase in rents" in areas where rents are regulated.

Illustrative image of the article via Depositphotos.com.