For once, housing, often overlooked, is one of the themes of the campaign in view of the early legislative elections of June 30 and July 7. Including within the outgoing majority, widely accused of having failed to respond to the deep crisis in the sector: Emmanuel Macron declared, Wednesday June 12, to make his “mea culpa” on access to housing for young people.
If politicians are seizing it, it is because the situation has deteriorated: the high cost of housing, coupled with the rise in mortgage rates, has caused construction and sales to collapse, and blocked many aspiring owners in the rental stock. The creation of social housing has also fallen, while 2.6 million households are waiting, a record. The difficulties in finding accommodation are increased by the increase in second homes and tourist rentals, fueling a feeling of downgrading.
The programs of the different camps do not attach the same importance to this crisis. That of the New Popular Front is, by far, the most extensive, and the only one to allocate significant resources – at the risk of being accused of unrealism. The presidential camp is devoting one of the eight points of its platform to it, and a new tax. The Republicans (LR) promise, in their “ten concrete proposals”, “a real housing policy”, marked by a reduction in taxation. The National Rally (RN), which has not yet published a program, is not making it a priority, even if the party’s boss, Jordan Bardella, questioned on the subject on France 2, Tuesday June 18, cited some measures.
Favor of the wealthiest on the right
Basically, many common points emerge. LR and RN agree to support the owners, a traditional marker of the right. They want to remove the progressive ban on the rental of thermal strainers, which the government has already reduced for small areas, because it “kills the rental market”according to LR.
These two parties have defended, in recent months, the generous tax breaks granted to renters of furnished tourist accommodation and furnished accommodation, which the outgoing majority and the left were in the process of aligning with long-term rentals. LR also intends to lower taxes on rental income, “to put housing back on the market”. Another favor for the wealthiest: the main residence would be, says LR, exempt from the real estate wealth tax (IFI), as well as the financial wealth tax, which the RN intends to replace the IFI.
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