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 (AFP/Archives/ERIC CABANIS)
The number of vacant homes in France, more than 3 million, has continued to grow for twenty years, particularly in medium-sized towns, reviving calls for requisitions.
The number of vacant homes reached 3.1 million in France in 2023, an increase of 60% since 1990, a study by the National Institute of Statistics (Insee) revealed on Tuesday.
The situation is particularly acute “in the least densely populated areas (…) as well as in areas with fewer than 200,000 inhabitants”, details the study, based on tax data and the population census.
Conversely, the share of vacant housing “remains lower in the catchment areas of the most populated cities, in areas with demographic growth or in those renowned for their tourist attraction”.
Last year, the number of vacant homes (unoccupied, as distinguished from second homes) represented 8.2% of the total stock in France excluding Mayotte, or 1.2 million more than in 1990.
This increase mainly occurs “from 2005” and has since reached “2.5% on average per year”, even if it has significantly attenuated since 2017, notes INSEE.
This means that the number of vacant housing units increased “2.3 times faster than the total number of housing units between 2005 and 2023.”
– Almost all departments concerned –
This increase concerns “almost all departments” with the exception of those of Corsica and Hérault.
INSEE distinguishes a temporary “frictional” vacancy from a “structural” vacancy which generally reflects a “demographic decline, an inadequacy between supply and demand, age or even unsanitary housing (.. .), or even inheritance problems”.
Among the multiple causes of the increase observed, 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 Ariège, editor’s note), as well as 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 generally lower (7%).
In areas of cities with between 200,000 and 700,000 inhabitants, vacancy is comparable to national values, although with strong disparities.
It is in towns with less than 50,000 inhabitants that it is on average the highest, at 9.6% in 2020, also with significant differences.
This study comes in the middle of a cold spell and a week after the announcement of the tabling of a communist bill in the Senate to allow mayors to requisition vacant housing.
“I have been in favor of requisitioning for several years in tense areas, which will make it possible to respond to a social emergency and encourage owners to find a project for their housing fairly quickly,” communist senator Ian told AFP. Brossat.
A proposal which, however, does not apply to relaxed areas, “where there is a need to relocate jobs”.
Manuel Domergue, director of studies at the Abbé Pierre Foundation, also in favor of requisitions, nevertheless considers it “more effective” to offer owners “solutions for making their empty homes available to associations, in exchange for tax advantages , or to increase the tax on vacant housing”.
“There is potential to alleviate the housing crisis today,” Jean-Baptiste Eyraud, spokesperson for the Droit au Logement (DAL) association, told AFP. A requisition for vacant housing, according to the latter, “is one year, renewable six times, therefore seven years maximum”. And the owner “receives compensation”, he adds.
A tax on vacant housing for municipalities located in an urban area of more than 50,000 inhabitants in a “tense zone” has existed since 1999.
Since 2006, other municipalities have been able to introduce a “housing tax on vacant housing” for housing that has been vacant for more than two years.
A national plan to combat vacant housing was also launched in 2021.
© 2024 AFP
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