PLF 2023: professional housing organizations denounce several dangerous amendments

The first anticipates the extinction of the "Pinel" device at the end of 2022 (with some exceptions) instead of December 31, 2024. Why rush this term when Christophe Béchu, Minister of Ecological Transition, had announced a consultation on the subject? Especially since the new collective housing market is already collapsing (listings for sale fell by more than 15% in the first half of 2022 compared to the same half of 2021 according to the FPI observatory) and that institutional investors are withdrawing also (-33% for bulk sales over the same period according to official data)? Need we remind you that households manage 98% of the private rental stock? Need we remind you that, in the past, the disappearance of support schemes immediately resulted in a halving of the flows of new buildings, which would threaten 45.000 jobs in the construction industry tomorrow? Faced with so much instability, the FFB reiterates its request to replace, at the end of 2024, the "Pinel" with a "professional lessor status", a general scheme based on the principle of amortization, as has existed in Germany for nearly 60 year. This serious track deserves a joint study with the government.

The second amendment proposes to shave once again the PTZ, and in particular (old refrain) to remove it in zones B2 and C, even though first-time buyers are hit hard by the RE2020 additional costs and the rise in the price of materials such as that of land (due to the anticipation of the ZAN), as well as by the HCSF regulations on property loans, or even by the barrier of the usury rate. Result: house sales are already collapsing by 27% year-on-year over the first eight months of 2022 according to Markemetron and net sales of collective housing to first-time buyers are down 7% in the first half of 2022.

Added to this is a third amendment which would weaken energy renovation if it were passed, since it provides for the abolition of eligibility for VAT at 5,5% of induced works, which are essential to the expected performance of the main works. … when the requirements of the Climate & Resilience law come into force! And it is neither the plan to increase the tax on vacant housing, half of which is located in territories that are structurally losing population, nor the capping of the IRL at 3,5%, which will promote the commitment of such works.

Faced with these deadly prospects for access to housing and the residential paths of the French, the FFB, the FNAIM, the FPI, the UNAM and the UNSFA are collectively sounding the alarm bell. If these amendments were adopted, then a serious and deep housing crisis would be deliberately provoked. The players in the sector therefore solemnly call for accountability.

Especially since in 2021, as shown by the very official Housing Account, the net balance of taxation and housing aid amounts to 50 billion euros in receipts in the coffers of the Nation. Can we do without it today?