Housing crisis: what the government is planning to facilitate access to property and rental

The players in the sector agree: for a week, from Matignon to the Elysée, the executive has ” Finally “ taken up with the issue of the housing crisis.

It will also be up to the Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, to conclude, on Monday June 5, the National Council for Refoundation (CNR) devoted to housing, a meeting initiated in November 2022 by Minister Olivier Klein. It is a vast consultation in which the whole sector took part, from associations to employers’ organisations. Each provided abundant proposals – 700 in total –, from the most urgent to the most structuring, to bring about a new housing policy in France.

What will remain of this work? The government, “aware that there is not enough housing and that prices are high”has planned a “mixed”: take a set of concrete measures from the outset and start long-term work. “It is not in one go that we solve the housing crisis”we say to Matignon, Sunday, June 4.

First project: Matignon wants to promote access to property. One of the current brakes is the very rapid rise in mortgage interest rates (from 1.06% in December 2021 to 3.28% in May 2023). The rate of wear, beyond which one can no longer borrow, being frequently exceeded, it became a blocking element. The Banque de France had accepted at the beginning of the year a monthly, and no longer quarterly, revision of the usury rates “for a limited time”. This monthly payment will be extended until the end of the year. The government also wants to relax the rules in order to facilitate obtaining a mortgage for first-time buyers and for rental investments, a decision to this effect to be taken on June 13 by the High Council for Financial Stability.

Another lever to be activated: the development of the real solidarity lease, a device for “social accession” to property, which will be made accessible to more French people. The government also wants to facilitate the sale of HLM housing. As for the zero-rate loan (PTZ), which was to stop at the end of the year, it will finally be extended until 2027, but refocused, and will only be open for the purchase of new collective housing in tense area or old housing in a “relaxed” area if renovation work is carried out.

Facilitate geographic mobility

The second area of ​​work concerns better access to rental for the French people. For files deemed too fair by the owners, the public guarantee of rents will be extended. This guarantee called “Visale” should reach twice as many beneficiaries, i.e. two million people.

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