The Senate on Wednesday rejected a bill aimed at extending the cap on rent revaluation indices for households and SMEs, criticizing the government in particular for the lack of comprehensive consideration of the housing crisis.
For the LR President of Economic Affairs Sophie Primas, it is not a question of opposing a solution for our fellow citizens and our SMEs. We actually want to shout our anger (…) and express our total opposition to the entire housing policy meticulously deconstructed since 2017.
The text of deputy Thomas Cazenave (Renaissance), voted on at first reading last Thursday by the National Assembly, will continue its course and will probably be adopted in the end by the deputies.
It proposes to renew the rent shield until the beginning of 2024: a cap on the rise in the benchmark rent index at 3.5%. Introduced in the summer of 2022, it is due to expire at the end of June 2023. A similar system caps the increase in the commercial rent index for SMEs.
With the end of the shield approaching, in a context of high inflation, the proposal for an extension was registered as a matter of urgency and the government also initiated the accelerated procedure.
A balanced device
Housing Minister Olivier Klein defended a balanced system and denounced political manipulation.
By voting against this text, you accept that the tenants of the private sector collect a rent increase of almost 10%, while we all want, I believe, to preserve their purchasing power.
The LR rapporteur Dominique Estrosi-Sassone launched the charge: concerning the method, I make a fivefold observation of lack of preparation, haste, lack of evaluation, lack of consultation, lack of financial support for the actors.
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Basically, the extension measure that we are presented with as essential and urgent cannot exempt the government from a real policy in terms of housing and purchasing power, she continued.
The centrist Valrie Ltard has pointed to a disposition completely disconnected from a global vision, while the housing crisis is only beginning. It is not really protective for the tenants (…) it is punitive for the owners, she estimated.
Sharing the criticisms of the method, the socialist Viviane Artigalas nevertheless judged it impossible not to consider the proposed measures as essential given the social emergency.
For the ecologist Daniel Salmon, the cap does not meet the challenges, his group advocating to lower the cap on the rise of the index to 1%. The majority communist CRCE group wanted a rent freeze.
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