Oxfam calls for the State to take control of the housing issue, “the fuel for all inequalities” – Libération

2023-12-04 10:36:08

In its first report devoted to housing made public this Monday, December 4, the NGO points to a progressive disengagement of the State. Real estate prices have increased “four times faster than income” in twenty years.

Inequalities continue to grow in access to affordable and renovated housing in France: this is the observation drawn up by the NGO Ofxam in a report made public this Monday, December 4. “We realized that the question of housing is the fuel of all inequalities”declared during a press conference Cécile Duflot, general director of the NGO in France, stressing that in twenty years the prices of real estate have increased “four times faster than income”. The first constrained expenditure item for the French, housing has gone from a share of 9.5% of gross household income in 1960 to 23% today, or even 32% for the most modest.

The report shows a gradual disengagement of the State, which “paved the way for the private sector and financial investors, until financialization”, causing “significant imbalances between supply and demand”. This is the case for intermediate housing, a segment located between social housing and private provision, with the proliferation of private residences (students and seniors) “to the detriment of an affordable offer for the most precarious”, observes Oxfam, recalling that a student spends 44% to 60% of their monthly budget on accommodation.

Include the right to housing in the Constitution

To attract investors, the political response was to “develop tax loopholes”, but three of them “have cost nearly 11 billion euros in 12 years”, which might have allowed “the construction of more than 70,500 social housing units”, calculated the authors. Oxfam also judges taxation “unsuitable” to the rise in inequalities, favoring on the contrary “the accumulation of real estate assets” just like the increase in the share of vacant housing and second homes.

Among the recommendations made, the report proposes to include the right to housing in the Constitution so that it is elevated to the same rank as the right to property. It also proposes to restrict or even ban listed real estate investment companies (SIIC) in residential investment, to remove tax loopholes for Airbnb type rentals and to offer mayors the possibility of banning the latter when these are second homes. Oxfam finally wants to experiment with controlling land prices and making the property tax more progressive.

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