In Deauville, the call of telework
The sea air, the beach lined with colorful umbrellas, the walks on the famous Planches… All this 2h30 by train from Paris. After eighteen years in Prague, Cyril chose to settle permanently in Deauville, Normandy, when he returned to France at the time of the health crisis. Already the owner of a family home, he did not have to worry about finding accommodation in this town of just over 3,500 inhabitants, where the supply of year-round rentals is scarce and where individual houses were stormed after the Covid. The father’s only challenge was to find a coworking space where he could spend his teleworking days. “It was very easy, and it was much more advantageous than renting a small studio or an office to work in”, he testifies, aware of the real estate pressure in the region. A few months ago, Cyril set up his computer in the dedicated spaces of You Are Deauville, a hybrid place offering hotel rooms, cinema, gym, bar-restaurant… And shared offices.
Officially opened just after the pandemic, the place is always full. “For three years, there has been a very strong demand for teleworking in Deauville. We are responding to a real expectation of residents or secondary residents, who wish to extend their weekend by the sea by a few days”, indicates Pierre Hesnée, its founder. . The entrepreneur is not the only one to have taken advantage of the vein: in the city and its surroundings, several other collaborative workspaces have emerged. Even the legendary Le Normandy hotel has gotten into it: since the fall of 2020, its customers have been able to benefit from a “teleworking getaway”, including “a dedicated work room and two gourmet breaks” from Monday to Friday. The offer has already attracted “several hundred customers” since the fall of 2020, according to general manager Frédéric Bessonneaud.
Philippe Augier, mayor of the city since 2001, is not surprised by such success. Even before the Covid, the elected official had sensed the attraction of his municipality for teleworking. In 2012, the community of communes Cœur Côte Fleurie was also the first in France to install a public initiative network (RIP) in the territory, in order to connect all its inhabitants to fiber. “We are also leading a very strong cultural and sports policy, we are putting the means into school, health, infrastructure… Which makes it possible to reinforce the attractiveness of the city, and to make it live all year round, unlike to other seaside resorts”, he argues.
The trend has, among other things, reshaped the real estate market. In five years, the price of housing in Deauville has more than doubled, with the average price per square meter now reaching more than 7,500 euros. If the specialists interviewed by L’Express assure that the number of transactions has tended to fall since the start of 2023, prices, which soared during the Covid, remain high. Over one year, they still increased by 8.7% according to the figures communicated to L’Express by Meilleurs Agents. The criteria for new residents have changed. “Our Parisian customers are very clear: they want to live near the station, to benefit from fiber, to have at least a balcony, a terrace or a small garden”, list Romane Rocci, of the agency Deauville Immobilier, specifying that the market is stretching over “the whole sector”, as in the municipalities around Touques, Saint-Arnoult, Villerville or Villers-sur-Mer: “Before the Covid, it was possible to rent there at the year and at more attractive prices.Today, the rental offer is scarce, and the selling prices have increased by 20 to 30%… Which leads to real difficulties in finding accommodation for the locals. “
In Biarritz, the battle for regulations
In Biarritz, even city hall officials are struggling to find accommodation. “My department worked with half of its staff for a year, because we couldn’t recruit. It’s not for lack of candidates, but those we accepted couldn’t find jobs. apartment”, annoys Maud Cascino, deputy mayor in charge of urban planning. If his service has managed to repopulate, his colleagues in the office next door are now in a similar situation. “It is valid for the town hall, but it is also for hotels, for restaurateurs… Some are even forced to close several times a week to compensate for the lack of staff!”, She regrets. The fault with a reduced offer which, when it exists, exceeds by far the financial capacities of the inhabitants. With an average price of 8,455 euros per square meter, the seaside resort is inaccessible to low earners… and even to part of the middle classes.
According to the analysis carried out by Meilleurs Agents on the “property purchasing power” of potential buyers, a couple from Biarritz with a median income can only access 24 square meters at this price. Two people from the Paris region will be able to claim an additional 6 square meters. A small gain that makes the difference, in a city already occupied at more than 41% by second homes. Popular for a long time with retirees wishing to spend their old days in the sun, the seaside resort has been greatly affected by the rise of short-term rental platforms, such as Airbnb. Between 2016 and 2020, the number of advertisements for tourist rentals increased by 130%, according to a study commissioned by the urban community of the Basque Country from the Agence d’urbanisme Atlantique & Pyrénées. “The Basque Country is a victim of its attractiveness”, sums up Nikolas Blain, one of the spokespersons of the Lodging in the country platform, which fights for “housing accessible to all” in the region. Demonstrations, house occupations, arrests of elected officials… This collective of 32 associations, unions and political parties is alerting the public authorities to a crisis that has been going on for several years now.
In response, the 24 municipalities of the urban community of the Basque Country have adopted drastic regulations. Since March, a measure has required owners to compensate for accommodation transformed into furnished tourist accommodation by marketing another property intended for year-round rental, located in the same city, and with a similar surface area. Challenged in court, then validated by the court of Pau, the measure begins to take effect. “We have already identified 1000 fraudsters, explains Maud Cascino. The daily penalties in the event of non-compliance with the legislation can go up to 1,000 euros per day. Although considered encouraging, the measure is not yet satisfactory, while the town hall hopes for the return of 10% of housing on the annual rental market. The town of 25,000 inhabitants now looks with bitterness at its 4,500 tourist rentals. “We are not against tourism, on the contrary. But when 1,500 Biarrots are waiting for social housing, each plot is a victory”, concludes the town planning assistant.
In Cancale, the war against “the Airbnb industry”
Walking on “La Houle”, as we say in Cancale to talk about the small port below the town, we come across, from the terraces of restaurants, oyster farmers in boots and overalls. You can see the bisquine, a replica of the fishing boats of yesteryear that anchored there and, in the distance, Mont-Saint-Michel. But here, not the shadow of a Cancalais with his strong character. The locals have deserted the port for several years. Only 80 of them resisted, while the vast majority of the houses along it bear the sign: “Seasonal rental”. The city is the victim of the same real estate trauma as its large neighbor Saint-Malo: here, second homes are plunging the city into a housing crisis.
With Paris less than three hours away by TGV and the advent of telecommuting, the phenomenon has increased. We live in Cancale on weekends, during school holidays, or during the summer, a period during which the city sees its population quintuple. Seasoned investors have seen it as a goldmine, the share of second homes now exceeds 41%. In winter, in streets and entire neighborhoods, rows of houses with shutters closed. The new buildings of the most recent subdivisions on the outskirts of the city, built to remedy the growing demand for main installations, are also giving way to tourist, secondary rentals. Settling in Cancale, to live there, has become a struggle. In June, only one house was “for rent” in real estate agencies. According to Erwan Le Nouvel, opposition municipal councilor and member of the urban planning commission, “Airbnb has become an industry here, and distorts the rules of the game. Investors only buy for secondary or touristic purposes. we do not regulate, the speculative effect on the main habitat will continue. In ten years, prices have already doubled and it is impossible for a young couple to settle down.”
In fact, the demography of the city continues to collapse. Cancale is one of the most graying towns in the bay of Mont-Saint-Michel, with 45% of inhabitants over 60 years old, and 20% over 75 years old. And according to a survey conducted in June 2022, the city should not experience a demographic revival in the coming years. A new housing project is about to come out of the ground, with land prices per square meter approaching 500 euros, when it was 200 euros seven years ago, and less than 100 euros ten years ago. Some elected officials are considering a charter for promoters to prohibit renting there for the season, over ten years. Rather than a regulation on the only city of Cancale, the mayor, him, expects that the community of agglomeration of Saint-Malo or that the State legislate. In the evening, on the Houle, hordes of cars leave the car parks, those of the workers of the restaurants and shops of the port who return to their homes, far from the coast, in “the land”. Last year, a teacher, transferred to a school in the city, was unable to live there with her family for months – even with the help of the public authorities.