The civic gathering “ViVA! democracy, ecology, solidarity” is launching a large campaign accompanied by an online petition to demand rent control in Nice, this Wednesday, December 6.
“It is becoming impossible to find housing in Nice. Rent prices are skyrocketing: Nice has the highest rents in France after Paris! Many residents of Nice are suffering from poor housing conditions. This cannot continue,” states David Nakache, a member of the ViVA! gathering and president of the “Tous citoyens!” association.
Today, during a press briefing, members of the social and ecological civic gathering from Nice came together to denounce exploding square meter prices and rent amounts in Nice. They speak in unison of a “social emergency.”
For Mireille Damiano, lawyer at the Nice Bar and member of the collective: “The housing crisis is a ticking time bomb”. France has 9 million people below the poverty line, or 14.5% of the population. The collective denounces “a huge poverty rate” in Nice (21%), well above the national average.
In the capital of the French Riviera, 78,000 people live below the poverty line, according to the latest report on poor housing by the Fondation Abbé Pierre, released last October.
For Nice to join the French rent control system
“Hunt for abusive rents” is the collective’s rallying cry, advocating for rent control. The rent control policy has been planned in France by the Alur law since 2014 and was revived by the Elan law in 2018.
In 2023, 24 cities are affected by this system, including Paris, Lille, Lyon, Montpellier, and Bordeaux. In this framework, the State has authority and plays a regulatory role over rents. Every year, the prefect sets the reference rent based on the status, type of housing, or the neighborhood it is located in. The landlord must adhere to the set amount. However, there is a margin for a 20% increase, which they cannot exceed without facing penalties.
Viva! calls on the city of Nice to apply for this system with the Ministry of Ecological Transition and Territorial Cohesion. Indeed, it is not an obligation for municipalities but rather a step they decide to undertake or not. Currently, Nice is considered a tension zone. Rent increases are only subject to the Rent Reference Index (IRL).
The ViVA! gathering set up an online petition regarding rent control. Thus, the collective hopes many signatories will voice their message: better regulate rents so that they become a moderate expense and not “the majority of their budget.”
More social housing and fewer vacant homes
To combat poor housing, the left-wing gathering also suggests several solutions, such as building more social housing while respecting the ZAN law (zero net land artificialization).
Nice is among the municipalities not complying with the SRU law, which requires in France that 25% of primary residences be social housing. Last year, the city only offered 14.2%. It even received a fine of over 1.8 million euros due to this deficiency in 2022.
The gathering supports the conversion of vacant homes into social housing and also aims to limit secondary residences, which account for 17% in Nice compared to 9% nationally, which they consider “too much.”
