Rising demand and falling supply put pressure on the housing rental market

This phenomenon affects all candidate profiles, including those with a favorable situation: 75,6% of public sector employees made a bitter observation, as did 73% of private sector employees on permanent contracts.

The share of students in research is only 27% against 35% on average at this time of year. Assets (employees and self-employed), who traditionally turn to purchasing, are thus over-represented.

A tense, challenging market for rental candidates

The rental market seems particularly tense at the start of the 2022 school year: 74,6% of rental candidates who have already had to do such a search in the past report greater difficulties than they had experienced during their previous searches, while only 21,2% indicate that they experience as much difficulty. Only 4,4% say they have less trouble finding.

In detail, all the profiles concerned report higher difficulties, regardless of their status. Thus, the profiles that are theoretically the most favored, that are employees in the private sector on permanent contracts and those in the public sector, are not spared by this observation since they are respectively 73 and 75,6% to indicate that they encounter more difficulties.

This situation is reflected in the search deadlines since 51,2% of candidates have been searching for more than two months, including 32,9% for more than 3 months. Here too, private sector employees on permanent contracts or those in the public sector do not benefit from it since they are respectively 56,1% and 54,1% to be searched for more than 2 months.

Another indicator of the difficulties encountered, the share of applicants who, when asked if they are looking for an empty or furnished rental, answer 28% "It doesn't matter, I'll take what I find".

A little less offers… and a little more tenants

The number of rental offers on September 1, 2022 on the PAP.fr site is down -22% compared to 2021, but the year 2021 is not significant, because many tourist rentals, particularly in Paris, had returned to the traditional rental market due to the shutdown of international tourism.

If we compare to the pre-Covid period, the drop is much more moderate: - 5% of rental offers compared to 2019. There is also an increase in demand: + 9% of candidate tenants compared to 2019.

These two developments can be explained by the drop in the number of buyers. Rise in interest rates, difficulties in accessing credit, assumption of a drop in purchase prices, uncertainties about purchasing power: the current context is leading to a -14% drop in the volume of buyers per compared to 2019.

There is therefore mechanically a report on the rental. Some assets, which would probably have bought in previous years, remain tenants, which mobilizes housing (fewer offers) and increases rental demand.

As for the hypothesis of withdrawal from rental investment due to new regulatory constraints (in particular concerning thermal sieves), we do not observe anything significant.

96,7% of candidates believe they had difficulties

96,7% of the candidates questioned (including those for whom it is their first search) believe that they have faced at least one difficulty. Among these, candidates for rental mainly point to: the lack of offers (56,3%), too high rents (45,8%) on par with the lack of response from the owners contacted (45,4 %), followed by the speed with which the offers leave (36,3%).

Nearly one in four candidates has already had their file rejected several times

Finally, it should be noted that 23,2% of applicants had their applications refused several times! This figure rises to 25,7% in Ile-de-France and even 27,8% for those looking in Paris.

And against all odds, we find all the profiles among the candidates who encountered refusal of file, including 33% of employees on permanent contracts.

And the absence of a guarantee is not responsible for the situation since 84% of the candidates had one.

The top 10 departments where rents are considered "too high"

Candidates for rental who believe they have been faced with too high rents are mainly looking in Paris and in two departments of the first ring: Hauts-de-Seine (92) and Val-de-Marne (94).

But this perception is not specific to Paris or Ile-de-France since several provincial departments occupy ranks 4 to 7 of this top 10.

With a constant, these are departments comprising a large metropolis, which makes it possible to identify the metropolises where the situation is the most tense, such as:

• Lyon in the Rhône department (69), in 4th position;
• Marseille and Aix-en-Provence in the Bouches du Rhône (13), in 5th position;
• Bordeaux in Gironde (33), in 6th position;
• Nice in the Alpes Maritimes (06), in 7th position;

Rent control, appreciated but deemed ineffective

52,4% of candidates for rental in one of the municipalities subject to a rent control system (Paris, community of municipalities Plaine Commune and Est Ensemble, Lille, Lyon, Villeurbanne, Montpellier and Bordeaux) consider that it is a good device, because the rents are too expensive there.

But they are on the other hand 47,6% to consider this measure ineffective on the grounds that it would have no tangible effect on prices.

The risks of scams, a parameter taken into account

The explosion of rental searches via the Internet has seen attempts at scams and scams multiply in recent years.

To the point of leading PAP to set up a dedicated team (5 full-time people) to overcome this problem in order to effectively filter ads to protect tenants.

And of course, the more the market is tense, as in this autumn of 2022, the more the scammers have potential victims.

But this phenomenon is now well known enough for candidates looking for a rental to be aware of it, since 90,6% of them declare that they are vigilant.

The lack of offers concerns all types of goods

Candidates who point to a lack of offers are not targeting a specific type of property. The lack of offers therefore concerns studios (20%) as well as 4 rooms and more (20%), as well as 2 rooms (29%) and 3 rooms (29%).

Methodology

Study carried out using data from:

• from a survey carried out between September 2 and 8, 2022, via an online questionnaire among 11.606 candidates actively looking for a rental.
• the number of rental offers available in France on the PAP.fr website on September 1, 2022 compared to September 1, 2021 and September 1, 2019
• the number of searches for rentals carried out in France on the PAP.fr website between August 22 and September 8, 2022 compared to the same periods in 2019.