In Brittany, second homes especially for Bretons, according to INSEE

Second homes in Brittany, an increasingly controversial subject in a region with an often strained housing stock, are mainly located along the coast and owned by rather wealthy and elderly Breton households themselves, indicates a study published Thursday. 4 May by INSEE.

Second homes represent 12% of all housing in Brittany (233.600 in total), a proportion which rises to 16% in Morbihan and 14% in Côtes-d'Armor, against 9% on average in mainland France.

This places Brittany in 4th place among French regions in this area, behind Corsica, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur and Occitanie, underlined Tristan Picard, head of the INSEE studies department in Brittany, presenting to the press this analysis.

Specific to the region, two thirds of second homes are located less than two kilometers from the shore, the highest proportion in France, notes Mr. Picard. This is also the case for the coastal strip located less than 500 meters from the coast, where 40% of Breton second homes are located.

Among the champions of secondary residences, we find the community of municipalities of Belle-Ile-en-Mer (Morbihan) with a rate of 50%, that of the Emerald Coast (Dinard and neighboring municipalities) with 35% and that of Auray-Quiberon with 31%.

Other specificities of Breton second homes: they are rather large (31% are more than 100 m2 and 45% have more than six rooms) and mostly old (40% built before 1945, 33% between 1946 and 1984).

Concerning the holders of these residences, if the cliché of the "Parisian" is not totally unfounded, it is above all the Bretons themselves who benefit from it: 43% of the owners have their main residence also in Brittany (very mainly in the department where they live) against 30% domiciled in Ile-de-France.

Foreign owners (7% in Brittany compared to 10% for the whole of metropolitan France) are mainly British (53%), Germans (12%) or Belgians (10%).

Households that own second homes in Brittany are often much better off than average: 22% of them have an annual disposable income of more than 80.000 euros.

By way of comparison, in 2018 the median annual disposable income of French households was 30.620 euros, according to INSEE.

Of all holders, 68% are at least 60 years old and 41% are at least 70 years old.