In each opinion poll, the results have been more or less the same for years: eight to nine out of ten French people believe that it is important to own their home. Sign that in these troubled times the stone represents more than ever a safe haven. In France, 58% of households own their main residence, according to data published by Eurostat in 2018.
This choice is also shared by most of our neighbours. In Belgium, 71% of households are owners. They are 72.9% in Italy, 74.8 in Portugal and 78.2% in Spain. Germany is one of the few countries to have less, with only half (51.8%) of households owning their homes.
The enabling environment is changing
“In the collective imagination, home ownership remains the sign of a successful social journey. But for it to work, three conditions are needed: a buoyant economic environment, attractive financing conditions and strong public support. However, today, everything is a bit seized up in France”, emphasizes Michel Mouillart, teacher at the University of Paris Nanterre.
After a decade of historically low interest rates, the cost of money has started to rise again. With the tightening of credit conditions, low-income households find it more difficult to borrow. “The fall in rates did not benefit buyers but sellers, who drove up prices. Now rising rates are eating away at home buyers’ purchasing power,” summarizes Charles Marinakis, president of Century 21 France.
Admittedly, prices are starting to fall in the towns where they had risen a lot, restoring some bargaining power to buyers, but the rebalancing of the balance of power is likely to take a long time. “In tense areas, there is structurally a demand greater than supply”, recalls Loïc Cantin, president of the National Federation of Real Estate (Fnaim).
It is increasingly difficult to build new housing
On the new home market, buying a home is becoming more and more complicated. “Today, one in five programs does not come out for economic reasons, because construction costs have increased by 15 to 25% in two years. And where we could easily meet needs, it is often difficult to obtain a building permit,” says Pascal Boulanger, president of the Federation of Real Estate Developers (FPI). The situation is worrying “because the private sector produces half of social housing, and if it goes badly, the whole chain is affected”, he explains.
Individual houses are criticized because they consume a lot of space and contribute to the artificialization of soils. “That’s the before image. The plots are now smaller and the houses are built more and more on wasteland or hollow teeth. It is above all the mode of housing acclaimed especially by households, even if fewer and fewer of them can afford it”, says Grégory Monod, president of the housing division of the French Building Federation (FFB).
New constraints in the old
Most players in the sector share the same concern. “Housing, social bomb to come”, headlined the report by investor and essayist Robin Rivaton, published last year. The rate of owners has not varied since 2007, he explains, a growing part of the population can no longer access property, while a minority accumulates real estate investments to rent them.
“The main question is where to build. However, the public authorities have imposed environmental constraints before setting up the tools to facilitate the rehabilitation of what already exists. We prohibit before authorizing and in the meantime, the number of poorly housed increases, ” judge Nadia Bouyer, general manager of the Action Logement group.
In the old, the multiplication of constraints that are preparing around energy renovation has also become very anxiety-provoking for owners. Since January 1, the most energy-intensive accommodation (a small part of class G) has been prohibited from renting (except for tourist stays), and the schedule will accelerate. In 2025, all “G” will be excluded from rental (800,000 properties concerned), then in 2028 it will be the turn of class F (1.2 million rentals), and in 2034 that of class E (2 ,8000000).
Part of the heritage could lose value
Many owners today are unable to pay €30,000 to €50,000 to carry out a comprehensive renovation of their property. In condominiums, already affected by the rise in energy prices for those with collective heating, the planned improvement work may be postponed to better days. With the risk that the goods will eventually lose a large part of their value.
“In rural France, where housing prices are already not very high and have stayed away from the frenzy recorded in the most dynamic areas, this can become a tragedy for many owners who have only that as heritage, warns Pierre Hautus, general delegate of Plurience, an association of real estate professionals.
The image of a France of happy rentier owners is fading. “Given the weight of taxation, if there is a real estate rent, the first beneficiaries are the State and the local authorities. “Judge Eudes Baufreton, general delegate of the National Union of Property Owners (UNPI). For the French, access to property remains a life project despite everything, even if it is becoming less and less accessible.
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17,6 millions households owned their home in France at the start of 2021, according to statistics from the Ministry of Ecological Transition. Among them, 35% still have to repay the mortgages taken out for the purchase. 79% of the owner-occupied housing stock is made up of houses (against 25% for tenants), with average surface areas of 100 m2. The Vendée is the department where the proportion of owner-occupiers is the highest (72%).
3 106 €. This is the average price per square meter, at the end of 2022, in France, according to Fnaim. But the disparities are huge. On average, the square meter was worth €10,786 in Paris last year, compared to €2,498 outside the Paris region and €1,608 in a rural town.
5,2 millions thermal colanders (labels F and G) are listed in France, according to the latest scores from the National Observatory for Energy Renovation. This represents 17% of the stock of main residences.