Like Paris and Lille, and soon Lyon, the town hall of Marseille will propose to the municipal council, Monday, to regulate rents to improve housing without risk of inflation. Professionals in the sector are worried about the perverse effects and the experience carried out in the capital shows its limits.
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It was a campaign promise from the candidate of the Printemps Marseillais. Michèle Rubirola wishes rent control in Marseille, on an experimental basis, to allow a renovation of the city center without inflation for tenants.
In city council Monday, November 23, the ecological mayor will present the project which will be submitted to the Metropolis, the only competent in the matter. First concern: its president LR Martine Vassal does not seem favorable. But above all, this provision would be at best useless, at worst, it would become a brake on the rental of housing, according to some professionals in the sector. So, true or false ?
A stable median rent in Marseille
In cities where the framework is in force, it is the prefect who sets by order a reference rent per square meter by type of housing. This device has already been applied in Paris since July 2019 and in Lille since March. Lyon and Villeurbanne are candidates, like Grenoble, Montpellier and Bordeaux. Would this measure make it possible to limit the rise in rents in Marseille? This is a false problem according to professionals in the sector, who are worried about the perverse effects of a device supposed to protect tenants.
“Since 2014, the median rent in Marseille has not increased.”
“We want to regulate the amount of rents to allow more people to have access to housing, but in Marseille rents have already been regulated on relocation since 2017”, explains Didier Bertrand, president of Fnaim Aix-Marseille.
This new device would therefore concern the first rental or a rental after 18 months of vacancy. “We could hear this desire to regulate rents in a market where rents are exploding, but since 2014, the median rent in Marseille has not increased. It is at 11.90 euros per square meter and it has not moved “, he notes.
What confirms the barometer of the Provence Real Estate Observatory:
[#Conjoncture] “The median price of #rents at #Marseille is 11.9 € / m2 and 14.70 € / m2 to #Aix. the situation has been stable for 5 years “. #ThierryMoalic, director @ ADIL_13officiel.
Find the full presentation of the #OIP Barometer sure https://t.co/Nh7cc47gb4 pic.twitter.com/pP36AJzNoH– OIP (@observatoireOIP) November 17, 2020
“Indeed, today there is no obvious rise in rents in the city center, it’s true”, recognizes Patrick Amico, deputy in charge of housing policy at the town hall of Marseille. But the new municipality, which wants to carry out a policy of renovation in the city center, thinks that “this will lead to a probably different rental policy in the long term. And we want to have the tools to oversee this rental policy over time. “
The device is not there to block any evolution of rents.
“It is one tool among others, it is not a tool in itself to block rents or put small landlords in difficulty, souligne Patrick Friend.
“We are going to have a leak from the owners”
But according to Didier Bertand, the effects would be particularly perverse in Marseille, a poor city where “the donors are mostly small owners”. “He is a retiree who has saved his whole life to acquire a property, generally small, to have additional income to live”, details Didier Bertrand. He believes that the rent control will dissuade these owners from investing and doing work. Worst, “we are going to have a leak from the owners”.
“They are going to go elsewhere, to another territory, for them it is the same as they go to Toulon. Not only will we not have renovated our old housing in the city center, but in addition, we will have less, and that will further strengthen our problematic “, he warns.
Paradoxically, rent control could also have the opposite effect to that sought and lead to an increase for tenants. Because if there is a ceiling not to be exceeded, nothing prevents an owner who would be below to raise his rent.
“A third of tenants would be tempted to increase their rents.”
For the president of the union which brings together 450 members in the Bouches-du-Rhône, regulating rents is only one “short term solution “ which will not solve the housing problem in Marseille, and which, on the contrary, will only strengthen it.
A very mixed record in Paris
Didier Bertrand points out that in Paris, “It did not work”. The measure has, on the contrary, increased prices, according to him, and encourage owners to turn to other markets such as the rental of furnished apartments between individuals, such as Airbnb.
The capital was the first city in France to have implemented rent control. A study carried out in June 2020 by the online real estate appraisal site MeillAgents.com, shows that there was indeed a brake on the surge in rents but only during the first six months following the entry into force of the device. An effect that would be due to the fear of controls. But then the rents started to rise again.
The rest of the picture is also very mixed. The study shows that more than one in two advertisements do not respect the rent regulations in the capital. It is even more obvious in the rental of small surfaces, 80% of apartments of less than 20 m2 are too expensive. “One year after its reinstatement, the rent framework is far from being respected in Paris. Unfortunately, it is the small dwellings which are the most illegal whereas this device was supposed to protect tenants from this type of surfaces (students, …) “, underlines Thomas Lefebvre, scientific director of Meilleur Agents in a press release.
The expert firm also explains that offenses are not punished. Weak controls, because it is not possible to condemn an owner for a simple advertisement at the too high price, explains to Europe 1 the Ministry of Housing. A lease must be signed for the infringement to become real. And then it’s up to the tenant to report this abusive rent on an online platform. A long and complex procedure. In one year, out of 51 appeals filed in Paris, only ten resulted in a lowering of the rent.
Apply before … November 23
Provided for by the Elan law of 23 November 2018, the rent control is today only an experiment lasting five years. The candidate cities had two years from the adoption of the law to submit their file, ie until November 23, 2020. Marseille’s candidacy is therefore already out of the question, especially since the city does not can apply directly. It is up to the Aix-Marseille Provence Metropolis to make the request to the State. Except that the metropolis has not voted for a Local Housing Program, and therefore technically cannot do so, says Patrick Amico. A PLH would be planned for 2021 according to him. “In the meantime, we ask the State to take into account the fact that Marseille is in a very special situation, and we ask to be able to benefit from this device.”
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