The Normandy regional council wants to launch an experiment in eight territories, to reduce the number of vacant homes, which amounted to 150,000 in 2020. To do this, it is counting on renovation aid.
How to understand those apartments remain empty while the French struggle to find accommodation? Faced with this observation, the Normandy region wants to fight free accommodation on its territory, thanks to an experiment.
The majority presented its project during the Plenary Assembly on June 24. “It is essential because in 2020, in our region, they represented 8.1% of the assets, or about 150,000 housing units,” stressed the president of the regional council, Hervé Morin, quoted by Western France.
“Furthermore, Normandy has seen its number of vacant housing units double over the last decade, making it the metropolitan region that has seen the greatest increase over this period,” explains the elected representative.
The experiment should take place in eight territories particularly affected by this phenomenon. The priority: aid for renovation, given that the park is aging. According to the mayor of Evreux, Guy Lefrand, responsible for regional and rural planning, quoted by Ouest-France, two-thirds of the vacant housing is over 50 years old.
Focus on restructuring
In urban centers, aid could reach 12,000 euros per renovated vacant home (compared to the current 10,000 euros), according to the regional newspaper. Even “in municipalities with fewer than 500 inhabitants, which has not happened until now,” explains Guy Lefrand.
In these eight cities, the elected officials want to extend the existing energy requalification system to small condominiums. Furthermore, entire homes will now be able to benefit from these works, and not just the common areas.
These provisions must also apply to energy sieves, because the majority believes that these accommodations could soon become vacant, given the new rules that prohibit the rental of Category G accommodation under the DPE from 2025.
On the opposition side, Les Écologists expressed doubts about the effectiveness of the experiment “since no credit has been given to this device”, criticized Bastien Recher, quoted by Ouest-France.
This experiment is in addition to another tool to fight against vacant housing: a decree already authorizes 264 municipalities in Normandy to apply a tax on empty housing.