The City of Paris aims for 40% "public housing" by 2035

The objective of 25% social housing in the capital, set by the former socialist mayor Bertrand Delanoë in the early 2000s, is "almost achieved today", welcomed the PCF housing assistant Ian Brossat in an interview with AFP.

At the beginning of 2021, the capital already had 24,8% of social housing financed and “we will reach 25% delivered in 2025”, he specifies.

"There are still unmet needs", recognizes however the elected communist, despite this effort on the social park, and despite the decree awaiting publication which must give the City the competence to sanction the owners who do not respect the regulation of rents, or 31% of cases in the private sector, according to the Abbé-Pierre Foundation.

The capital – where the average price per m2 for purchase is around 10.000 euros, and where a 50 m2 rental costs 1.200 euros per month on average, according to the Observatory of rents in the Paris agglomeration (Olap) – loses nearly 10.000 inhabitants per year for a decade, according to INSEE.

In order to curb this trend, Ian Brossat therefore intends, in addition to increasing the total of social housing to 30% by 2030, to develop up to 10% "affordable" housing, that is to say 20% in- below the market price, for the middle classes".

It is thus counting on the current revision of the local urban plan (PLU) to insert an obligation to integrate a part of housing in any new construction, including offices.

"The threshold has not yet been set, it will not necessarily be 30% on offices" as on new housing, an obligation in force since 2015, underlines Ian Brossat. But "every square meter built in Paris must allow us to make additional housing", he insists.

Anne Hidalgo's deputy also intends to launch a "social and affordable housing property company, specifically dedicated to the transformation of buildings", whose role will be to "buy office buildings, aerial garages, hotels to convert them into buildings rental housing, either social or affordable".

The elected communist intends that this property, for which he has no budget at this stage, be "up and running from 2023".

For the opponent LR Jean-Baptiste Olivier, these proposals contain "nothing new: this is what has been happening for years and what we qualify as concretization" of the capital.

"We only do housing to the detriment of any other activity", deplores this elected member of the group of Rachida Dati for whom the creation of "another land company" will allow the majority on the left to "make up a little the future preemptions".

Created in 2019, the Foncière de la Ville de Paris aims to facilitate access to property for the middle classes via the real solidarity lease (BRS), where the land remains the property of the property company.