The measure taken by the municipality of Lyon will affect 30% of the inhabitants (Photo credits: Unsplash – Julien Rocheblave)
The city of Lyon plans to raise its property tax by 9% to offset soaring energy prices.
Abolishing the house tax on principal residences is a common argument put forward by mayors to raise the property tax. But the City of Lyon has come up with a justification, to say the least strange, to justify an increase in the tourist tax of 9%, or 5 euros per month on average: the ” unprecedented energy crisis “. The surge in energy costs, in particular the explosion in the price of electricity, and inflation, have caused the Municipality’s bill to rise by at least 30 million euros, explains the Municipality. The increase in the tax on buildings in 2023 will therefore have to compensate for the explosion in the cost of energy.
For Maître Sylvain Grataloup, president of the local chamber of the National Union of Property Owners (UNPI) of Lyon, these 9% are added to the further 7% voted in the budget. ” This is 16% higher than the rate which was 29% in 2022. We are around 45% “, he warns. According to the municipality, this is a controlled increase in property tax. ” Necessary and controlled, this increase aims to sustainably maintain the level of public service, developing its quality and continuing to invest “, argues Audrey Henocque, first deputy mayor in charge of finances, who emphasizes the maintenance of municipal equipment: museums, libraries and swimming pools, “ without any price increase ».
What Maestro Sylvain Grataloup replies: “ Collective structures benefit landlords and tenants, but here it is the landlords who pay for everything “. He suggests ” make part of the property tax recoverable from the tenant as for the household waste tax », instead of an increase in property tax for landlords.
The owners, privileged?
The measure taken by the municipality of Lyon will affect 30% of the inhabitants, since a third of the inhabitants own at least one home. The most precarious workers will be exempt from this increase, as well as elderly people over 75 with low incomes and beneficiaries of the solidarity allowance for the elderly or the allowance for disabled adults. Maître Sylvain Grataloup regrets that the owners are considered as ” privileged”. “The nineteenth-century plan no longer exists and yet we have a “very nineteenth-century” look at the owners . First there was rent control and now the property tax hike ».
The city compares with Marseille, Nantes, Istres and Toulon which have all raised this local tax. For owners of a 40m² one-bedroom in Lyon, the increase will be 33 euros per year, or 2.75 euros per month. For owners of a T3 of 75 m², the increase will be €43 per year, or €3.6 per month and those with a T4 of 100 m², will have to pay an additional €178, or €14.8 per month , specifies BFM Lyon. The decision, which recalls the one taken by Paris PS mayor Anne Hidalgo in November, will be presented to the next city council on January 19. The mayor of Paris then invoked the energy crisis but also climate change and the impact of Covid-19 on the City’s finances. All arguments seem valid to justify the property tax increase.
