In 2023, 3.1 million houses had been vacant in France, excluding Mayotte, representing 8.2% of the housing inventory (Insee).
Since 1990, the variety of vacant dwellings has risen by almost 1.2 million, a rise of 60%. Most of this enhance started in 2005, and has since averaged 2.5% per yr. Between 2005 and 2023, the variety of vacant dwellings will enhance 2.3 instances sooner than the overall variety of dwellings. Emptiness is on the rise in nearly all départements, aside from Corsica and Hérault. It’s rising extra quickly in departments the place it was already excessive.
Extra within the metropolis than within the nation
The proportion of vacant dwellings is highest in much less densely populated areas, exterior the catchment areas of cities, and in areas with fewer than 200,000 inhabitants. Conversely, it stays decrease within the catchment areas of probably the most densely populated cities, in areas present process demographic development, or in these famend for his or her vacationer enchantment. Throughout the catchment areas of cities of all sizes, emptiness is on common increased within the central municipality than within the different municipalities of the cluster or these on the outskirts.
The struggle towards vacant dwellings
There are two fundamental varieties of emptiness. Frictional emptiness is the interval throughout which a property stays obtainable on the market or lease. Though its length can fluctuate, it’s by nature short-term and essential to the functioning of the actual property market. Structural” emptiness, which regularly lasts longer, typically displays issues for which there could also be many causes: demographic decline, mismatch between provide and demand (location issues, sort and measurement of housing, proximity of facilities), age and even insalubrity of the property, possession standing, disputes between tenants and house owners, inheritance issues, and so forth.
A tax on vacant dwellings
Specific consideration is being paid to the problem of housing emptiness, in view of the twin problem of guaranteeing entry to housing for all, and optimizing land use by limiting the artificialization of land by new building. Numerous measures have been put in place to encourage the mobilization of vacant housing. In 1999, a “tax on vacant housing” was launched for municipalities positioned in city areas with a inhabitants of over 50,000 in a “tense zone”. A redefinition of the perimeter of “zones tendues” takes impact on January 1ᵉʳ, 2024, rising the variety of communes involved from 1,150 to three,698, representing 45% of the overall housing inventory.
Since 2006, different communes have been in a position to institute a “tax on vacant lodging” for dwellings vacant for greater than two years. The difficulty has additionally been taken into consideration in schemes such because the “Housing First” and “Small Cities of Tomorrow” plans, and the “Motion cœur de ville” program.
The Nationwide Plan to Fight Vacant Housing, to be launched in 2021, goals to coordinate and complement all these measures.
