To resolve the polymorphous real estate crisis, the government thinks it has found the magic formula: “decentralization”. The key to the problem, when building permits have fallen by 28% over one year? The Minister of Housing’s bill is in any case announced by spring 2024 around this idea. “Elected officials must be fully aware of the challenge of maintaining new production to meet needs and avoid reinforcing the housing crisis. Which requires everyone to take their part in the act of building,” explains Patrice Vergriete, himself a former mayor of Dunkirk. And that’s the rub. “Decentralization has existed in fact for years because it is the mayors who issue the permits,” points out promoter Philippe Zivkovic, 40 years of career in the real estate sector. Under pressure from residents reluctant to make new neighbors, they are slowing down. “By default, it is forbidden to build!” laments an urban planner.
Taxation linked to the number of inhabitants
The problem is that the city councilors are encouraged… not to open the floodgates. New residents are synonymous with investments in new equipment: nurseries, schools, etc. However, the removal of the housing tax complicates the equation. “This decision was beneficial for purchasing power and from a political point of view for Emmanuel Macron. But it broke the incentive to build for mayors. We call for a reflection on taxation linked to the number inhabitants”, maintains Erwann Tison, director of studies at the Sapiens Institute. As there is no question of resurrecting the housing tax, one solution could be to direct part of the income tax of those administered to their municipality. Or to imagine a new local tax, offset by the reduction in other taxes.
Beyond financing, be careful not to lose sight of the fact that housing needs are concentrated in only a few regions. “We need a global strategy on the occupation objectives of the different living areas, then rolled out at the level of the departments, then the mayors,” insists Erwann Tison. On the promoters’ side, the president of the professional federation, Pascal Boulanger, does not hide his skepticism in the face of this fierce desire for decentralization: “I have the impression that it is a way of passing the hot potato and carrying the blame. fault on the territories”. In the event of failure on this sensitive subject of French housing, it is the government which risks burning its fingers.