Pouch filled with photocopies of identity papers and pay slips from her parents, Joan Billon waits in the lobby of a real estate agency in the Place des Lices, in Rennes. Outside, her parents are waiting for a sign. Will they have the ” chance ” to visit a studio, this Wednesday, August 23?
Arrived from Challans in Vendée, they struggle to find a roof for their son, a master’s student in bioinformatics. “For a month and a half, we have been prospecting on the Internet. We call real estate agencies. Without success. We are told that the only way to find a home in Rennes is to come there, be lucky and be reactive. »
In the Breton capital, where 72,000 young people follow higher education, the start of the new school year has always been synonymous with tension on the rental market. It has, however, never been so complicated. Sales manager of the Guenno agency for six years, Solène Fleury confirms: “We no longer post our ads on the Web as we are overwhelmed with requests. Today I have 150 requests for two apartments. To avoid frustration, I only show an apartment to three people. Then the owner selects his favorite folder and makes two disappointed. »
Fake ads
Emma Humbert is one of them. A student in biology, she comes from Lyon, where she had had “much less worry about housing”. Reindeer, she eyed an apartment for weeks, before launching a call for help on social networks. The answer is a lot of fake ads written by scammers trying to get copies of personal documents or trick desperate people into paying them a month’s rent to reserve a property that doesn’t exist.
Emma Humbert has found a room in a house to share. She revised her budget upwards. Monthly rent ? 590 euros. Like her, many young people are massively falling back on flatshares, now popular with landlords. Because renting a residence to several students is more profitable than to a family. The transformation of these family apartments into joint tenancies has made it more complex since the search for assets. From now on, no one is spared from the real estate tensions that could to “grow further”, according to Yann-Eric Prouteau, general manager of Crous Bretagne.
In Rennes, the organization has 5,800 properties but recognizes a lack of 1,500 housing units to meet the objectives set by the institution itself. “All our partners are now drawing up a shared observation and taking the measure of the problem”, insists Mr. Prouteau. It announces the end of the renovation of the student park and the construction of 400 new accommodation, in Rennes, by 2027. A number however insufficient in view of the shortage. All the more so with the emergence of the Airbnb phenomenon. According to the AirDNA platform, which analyzes overnight market data, the number of short-term rentals in Rennes has increased by 18% over the past three years. Some of these 1,850 homes have been removed from the traditional rental market.
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