The government proposed on Friday the reclassification of more than 800 municipalities in extended areas in order to respond to the housing crisis, an administrative modification which should in particular facilitate access to zero-rate loans for new properties.
This reclassification should allow municipalities to have access to mechanisms to produce more affordable housing, for rental or ownership, wrote in a joint press release the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire and the Minister of Housing Guillaume Kasbarian .
These tools will be opened after a consultation with local elected officials which must be launched by the end of May, confirming the tension on the housing market, continued the government. The list of reclassified municipalities must be made public in June.
Potentially, the 3.5 million French people living in these municipalities will be able to benefit either from new systems to access housing, or from improvements to existing systems, these ministers indicated.
In particular, 1.8 million additional people could (…) be made eligible for the zero-rate loan to acquire new housing, it was specified from the same source.
Another system concerned: intermediate rental housing, whose rents are 10 to 15% below market prices thanks to public aid and which can only be produced in extended areas.
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The government had already indicated on Wednesday that it wanted to double the rate of production of these intermediate housing units, increasing it to 30,000 per year by 2026.
Since Emmanuel Macron came to power, the executive has strongly pushed for intermediate rental housing (LLI), intended primarily for the middle classes and private sector employees who experience difficulties finding accommodation in large cities but earn too much to benefit from social housing.
A first change in tension zoning took place in October 2023, the government recalled on Friday: it led to the reclassification of 200 municipalities.
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