In 2022, the portfolio of the French was put to the test between soaring fuel prices, rising energy prices and generalized inflation, including on basic necessities. In the midst of all this, rent represents the largest item of household expenditure. However, according to a study conducted by the rental agency Flatlooker, the share of the French budget devoted to this rent has changed only slightly between 2021 and 2022 (34.65% once morest 34.52% the previous year).
“In a context of high inflation and a scarcity of rental housing, this moderate increase suggests that the rent control or the capping of the IRL (benchmark rent index) had a positive impact on the budget. household”, argues Mathieu Girard, spokesperson for Flatlooker. At the end of last year, the government in fact put a cap at 3.5% on the rise in rents.
The share of the household budget devoted to rent, constantly increasing
The Flatlooker study also raises disparities depending on the geographical era considered. Thus, in Paris, the share of rent in the household budget is six points higher than the average for Île-de-France. A reality that should not change anytime soon because tenants say they are ready to devote an even larger budget to their rent in order to live in the capital. On average, Parisians are willing to allocate around 39.26% of their budget to access housing. “These figures show the strong rental tension that persists in Paris and reflect a real difficulty in finding accommodation in the capital”, analyzes Mathieu Girard.
In general, even if the difference between 2022 and 2021 is minimal, the place occupied by rent in the budget of the French has been constantly increasing for four years. In 2018, it represented only 32.5%, or 2.1 points less than today. Another lesson of the study which may seem paradoxical: the rent weighs much less on the household budget when the latter occupy a spacious accommodation. The share of the budget devoted to this rent is thus 38% for a T1 and drops to 31% for a T4. “There are logically more households living in housing with more rooms. The drop in rent per m² on large surfaces and the division by the number of people in the household naturally lowers the relative budget according to the number of rooms”, points out Nicolas Goyet, president of Flatlooker.