According to a study by FNAIM, there are more and more vacant housing units in France, exactly 7.9% on a national basis, while in some cities, the percentage reaches 15%.
As a result, in 2014, no fewer than 2.7 million housing units had no occupants.
This number should be put into perspective with the approximately 143,000 homeless people in France, in addition to around 1 million people without a stable residence (living with others out of necessity, travelers, staying in hotels, etc.) according to the Abbé Pierre Foundation.
Housing can be vacant for several reasons: being on the market, undergoing renovations, or changing tenants. In theory, these situations are short-term, but in some areas, housing remains vacant longer, sometimes for entire years.
Not surprisingly, as the FNAIM study shows, the vacancy rate is strictly linked to the attractiveness of the area.
The smaller the city, the more vacant housing
Although exceptions always exist, the trend in France is as follows: the smaller the city, the more vacant housing on its territory.
Thus, the vacancy rate exceeds 10% for cities with fewer than 100,000 inhabitants, reaching an average of 8% in cities with populations between 200,000 and 500,000 inhabitants.
In this way, large cities with more than 500,000 inhabitants show a low vacancy rate: 6.8% on average in 2014, a decrease of 0.6% compared to 1999.
This situation is likely to worsen, the study concludes, due to the trend of leaving city centers to settle in urban suburbs.
