The government’s strategy would consist in modifying the reference rent index (IRL).
Bercy seeks the parade to limit the flight of the rents which is related to the surge of fever of the inflation (+5,2% in May over one year according to the INSEE). This will not go through the freezing of rents, demanded by consumer associations: Élisabeth Borne, the Prime Minister, ruled out this option in an interview with the JDD ten days ago. “We are facing strong inflation, the objective is for the burden to be shared between owners and tenants”, says one in the entourage of the Minister of the Economy. The State will also be able to play its role by upgrading housing aid.
To lower tenants’ bills without penalizing small landlords too heavily, Bercy wants to tackle the benchmark rent index (IRL) instead. This quarterly index, the calculation of which depends on inflation, serves as the basis for the annual review of leases, most often on the anniversary date of entry into the premises. It jumped 2.48% in the first quarter over one year, unheard of since its creation.
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A meeting was held this Wednesday between Bercy, the Ministry of Territorial Cohesion, and real estate rental professionals, at the end of which three solutions emerged and “will be appraised”, indicates Bercy. “The challenge is to modify the IRL for a suitable and sustainable evolution of rents”, says one of the participants. The first track consists of taking energy prices out of the calculation of the benchmark rent index, which would limit the increase. The second would be to take the average of the IRL over the last twelve months, and block this index for the following twelve months. The third would be to choose the IRL of the 2e quarter, which should be published in July, and to freeze the rate to apply it for the next 12 months. For now, “nothing is decided”, we remember in Bercy. The chosen track can be implemented “after the legislative”.