The number of vacant homes reached 3.1 million in France in 2023, an increase of 60% since 1990, and their share is greater in areas experiencing demographic decline, according to an INSEE study published on Tuesday.
The share of vacant housing is higher in areas with less population density (…). Conversely, it remains lower in the areas of attraction of the most populous cities, in areas with demographic growth or in those known for their tourist attraction, analyzes the National Institute of Statistics, based on tax data and population census.
In 2023, the number of vacant housing units (unoccupied, distinguish from secondary residences, editor’s note) represented 8.2% of the total housing stock in France excluding Mayotte, or 1.2 million more than in 1990.
This increase occurs mainly from 2005 and has since reached 2.5% on average per year, notes INSEE, which means that the number of vacant housing increases 2.3 times faster than the total number of housing between 2005 and 2023 .
This increase concerns almost all departments except those of Corsica and Hérault.
According to INSEE, long vacancy generally reflects a demographic decline, an inadequacy between supply and demand, age or even unsanitary conditions of housing, disputes between tenants and owners or even inheritance problems.
Among the multiple causes of the observed increase, INSEE mentions the evolution of the population and construction but also the effects of the economic situation or tax and regulatory developments.
The rural departments located along the diagonal of the void (line of low population density which runs from the Ardennes to Arige, editor’s note), as well as the Orne, are particularly affected, unlike the Alpine departments and those located along the Atlantic, in Ile-de-France and in the Var.
In Paris, and in cities with more than 700,000 inhabitants, vacancy is lower (7%) although there are some disparities.
The situations are contrasting in the areas of cities between 200,000 and 700,000 inhabitants, with a low vacancy rate in Bayonne or Cannes and a high rate in Pau, Avignon or Saint-Etienne.
It is in towns with less than 50,000 inhabitants that the housing vacancy rate is on average the highest, 9.6% in 2020, also with marked differences.