2024-02-14 20:50:20
Gabriel Attal is stepping up to the plate on housing, one of the “emergencies” to which he believes the government must focus. “We are going to fight centimeter by centimeter, square meter by square meter, to find housing for the French. We are going to look for all possible housing with our teeth,” he insisted this Wednesday during a trip to Villejuif, alongside the Minister of Ecological Transition, Christophe Béchu, and the Minister for Housing, Guillaume Kasbarian .
The Prime Minister confirmed an announcement made in October by the previous government: the designation of “territories committed to housing” – there will be 22 – in which more than 30,000 homes will be built within three years.
Sites undergoing reindustrialization or tourist areas
These territories will benefit “if necessary” from financial aid from the State, it is specified to Matignon, who recalls that it is a question of drawing inspiration, to reduce delays and simplify procedures, from the model of Olympic Village built in Seine-Saint-Denis. The total amount of this aid is not yet precisely known, with the government citing “several tens of millions of euros”.
The list of these 22 territories has finally been revealed. There we find, as expected, sites with reindustrialization projects such as Dunkirk, or the municipalities of the Dieppe conurbation called upon to host the Penly EPR nuclear reactor.
Large cities whose attractiveness has increased in recent years such as Toulouse, Bordeaux or Marseille. Very touristy areas – such as the Basque Country – with strong housing needs. Or others, located around the stations of the future Grand Paris Express metro, in Ile-de-France, such as Villejuif.
Criticism, however, has already been raised about the additional construction of these 10,000 homes per year. While only 287,000 housing units were started last year, for a need that is difficult to assess, but estimated at 449,000 per year by developers and 518,000 by social landlords.
At Matignon, we assure you that this is only one of the many levers that the government intends to activate to trigger its “supply shock”. Even if it means breaking certain “taboos”, declared Gabriel Attal, such as that of densification.
But “I do not believe in densification with an ax, I believe in gentle densification,” clarified the Prime Minister. Thanks to the elevation of buildings, the densification of residential areas, the transformation of offices into housing or the development of off-site construction. Avenues already widely explored, but not so simple to implement.
Acceptability problem
“I want us to build vertically in all the major cities of France,” insisted Gabriel Attal. He asked social landlords and local authorities to identify buildings to raise, like the work carried out in Nice, where, according to him, 5,000 buildings have been identified with 7,750 housing units to be created. The fact remains that this type of operation often goes down badly with residents and the head of government does not say how he intends to manage this problem of acceptability.
When it comes to transforming offices into housing, clearly the possibilities are there. Matignon recalls that in Ile-de-France alone, nearly 4.8 million square meters of offices are immediately available, part of which will not find tenants.
In order to remove certain regulatory obstacles to this type of operation, the government is supporting a centrist bill, already adopted at first reading in the Assembly. But these transformations remain particularly complex and costly.
Review standards
As for the gentle densification of residential areas, it also comes up against financial and technical obstacles, but also sometimes psychological ones on the part of the owners. To create two accommodations in the same house, it is necessary, for example, to separate the water and electricity networks, or to create an additional parking space.
It may be necessary to review standards and imagine support for owners, we admit at Matignon – who estimates the number of homes potentially created in the region at 160,000 if only 1% of owners decide to get started. A full-scale test will be carried out in Ile-de-France with Grand Paris Aménagement.
Finally, off-site construction is an avenue that has already been explored for several years by developers and construction companies. It makes it possible to produce faster, cheaper and with less nuisance for local residents. But its economic balance is difficult to find. This is evidenced by the bankruptcy, in 2022, of Geoxia, the builder of Maisons Phénix, which relied largely on prefabrication in factories. This is why players in the sector are moving slowly on this subject.
Residential densification: an experiment carried out in Ile-de-France
The idea had been in the pipeline for several months. Residential densification will be the subject of an experiment in Ile-de-France with Grand Paris Aménagement in charge.
The idea is to support local authorities and owners in carrying out “life projects”, for example the construction of additional accommodation to accommodate an elderly parent, a student or even enable a modest household to acquire an additional source of income.
To do this, it is envisaged that mayors can deviate from their local urban planning plan (PLU) in order to facilitate construction, but in an “acceptable and controlled” manner.
Grand Paris Aménagement will launch its experiment in the spring. We are talking about 3 to 4 municipalities, both the small and the outer suburbs – Ile-de-France has around 400,000 individual houses. Houilles (78) is the most dynamic at this stage.
Grand Paris Aménagement has just proposed to the Prime Minister “a methodology” developed with the Atelier Parisien d’urbanisme, the notary office Cheuvreux, and the urban planning firm Iudo.
C.P.
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