Are you one of the 800 new municipalities in a high-demand area?
On Friday, the government proposed reclassifying more than 800 municipalities as “high-demand areas” to address the housing crisis—an administrative change that should, among other things, make it easier to access zero-interest loans for new construction.
This reclassification will allow municipalities to access programs to build more affordable housing, whether for rent or for home ownership, according to a joint statement by Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire and Housing Minister Guillaume Kasbarian.
The measures will be made available following consultations with local elected officials, which are set to begin by the end of May, confirming the strain on the housing market, the government added. The list of reclassified municipalities will be made public in June. According to these ministries, the 3.5 million French citizens living in these municipalities could potentially benefit from new programs to help them access housing or from improvements to existing programs.
In particular, an additional 1.8 million people may be eligible for an interest-free loan to purchase a new home, according to the same source. Another program involved is intermediate rental housing, where rents are 10 to 15 percent below market rates thanks to government subsidies and which can only be built in high-demand areas. The government had already indicated on Wednesday that it wanted to double the rate of construction of these intermediate housing units, bringing it to 30,000 per year by 2026.
Since Emmanuel Macron took office, the government has strongly promoted intermediate rental housing (LLI), which is primarily intended for the middle class and private-sector employees who have difficulty finding housing in major cities but earn too much to qualify for public housing. The government noted on Friday that an initial revision of the “high-demand” zoning classifications had taken place in October 2023, resulting in the reclassification of 200 municipalities.
