How the Normandy region wants to put vacant housing back on the market

The Normandy regional council wants to launch an experiment in eight territories, in order to reduce the number of vacant housing units, which stood at 150,000 in 2020. To do this, it is relying on renovation aid.

How to understand that apartments remain empty while the French are struggling to find housing? Faced with this observation, the Normandy region wants to fight against vacant housing on its territory, thanks to an experiment.

The majority presented its project during the Plenary Assembly on June 24. “This is essential because in 2020, in our region, they represented 8.1% of the stock, or around 150,000 homes,” pointed out the president of the regional council, Hervé Morin, quoted by West France.

“In addition, Normandy has seen its number of vacant homes double over the last decade, making it the metropolitan region that has experienced the largest increase over this period,” explains the elected official.

This experiment should take place in eight areas particularly affected by this phenomenon. The priority: aid for renovation, since the stock is aging. According to the mayor of Evreux, Guy Lefrand, in charge of regional planning and rurality, and quoted by Ouest-France, two thirds of vacant housing is over 50 years old.

Focus on renovation

In city centres, aid that could reach 12,000 euros per renovated vacant dwelling (compared to 10,000 euros currently), according to the regional daily. Including “in municipalities with fewer than 500 inhabitants, which was not the case until now”, explains Guy Lefrand.

In these eight urban areas, elected officials also want to extend the existing energy renovation system to small co-ownerships. In addition, entire homes will now be able to benefit from this work, and not just the common areas.

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These provisions should also apply to

energy sieves, as the majority believes that these dwellings could soon become vacant, given the new regulations which prohibit the rental of G-rated housing under the DPE from 2025.

On the opposition side, the Ecologists expressed their doubts about the effectiveness of the experiment “since no credit has been earmarked for this system”, criticized Bastien Recher, quoted by Ouest-France.

This experiment is in addition to another tool to combat vacancies: a decree already authorises 264 Normandy municipalities to apply a tax in the event of empty housing.

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