Housing crisis, energy renovation: why we must focus on elevation

Build more with less land or even without consuming land at all: raising the height, which consists of adding one or more floors to an existing building without changing the footprint, could well contribute to resolving what seems to be a problem. problem of squaring the circle.

The politicians, moreover, were not mistaken. The slogan “rebuild the city on the city” appeared in the SRU law of December 13, 2000. More than a decade later, the Alur law of March 24, 2014 removed the soil coefficient (Cos) and facilitated the raising of buildings. Finally, the climate and resilience law of August 2021 intends to halve the artificialization of land by 2030 and to achieve “Zero net artificialization”, better known by the acronym “ZAN”, in 2050.

For the co-owners the operation is lucrative in more than one way. The sale of the rights to build higher elevations will allow them to finance large-scale work in their building. We are thinking, in particular, of a large-scale energy renovation which will help to improve the energy label of the building and, in fact, to add value to it, but also to reduce the heating bill of its occupants. Another pecuniary interest, less blatant, the increase also allows the dilution of charges thanks to the creation of additional bonuses.

The increased use of wooden frames for the creation of additional floors ensures a quick, low-noise and secure construction site, because they exert little structural stress on the building's foundations. Last advantage, environmental this time, wood sustainably absorbs CO2.

Elevation therefore appears to be an appropriate solution for creating housing while responding to the environmental challenges of land control and the fight against thermal sieves by allowing the financing of energy saving works. And, for once, the political will seems to be there.

Tribune by Benjamin Lefebure, co-founder of Les Secrets de l’Immo (LinkedIn).