Real Estate: 30% of buyers are also looking… to rent
Unable to finalize a purchase, nearly one-third of prospective homebuyers are simultaneously looking for a rental, according to a study by the Jinka platform. That figure rises to 40% in the Île-de-France region. This is a sign of a stagnant market, where housing is no longer entirely a matter of choice.
Buy or rent: Until now, this question seemed to represent two distinct paths. That distinction is now blurring. According to a study published by Jinka, a real estate search platform, 30% of people planning to buy a home are now simultaneously searching for a rental property. In the Île-de-France region, where the housing market is tightest, that figure reaches 40%.
Behind these percentages lie approximately 60,000 households that, unable to find a property to buy but needing a place to live, are showing resilience by exploring both options simultaneously.
This observation speaks volumes about the state of the market. People no longer buy because they’ve found their dream home; whether buying or renting, they take whatever they can get. This growing blurring of the lines between the two statuses marks a break with a model in which France has long—almost culturally—drawn a distinction between homeowners and renters. “This is a symptom of a market where people no longer choose their housing—they take whatever they can get,” says Marc Lebel, president of Jinka.
A Stagnant Market That Blurs the Line Between Buying and Renting
This dual trend is by no means anecdotal: it reflects the inability of some households to complete their home-buying plans within a reasonable timeframe. Between financing conditions that remain stringent, high down payments, and a supply that struggles to meet demand in tight markets, the home-buying process has become longer and more complex. Rather than remain in limbo, prospective buyers are exploring a second option—renting—to ensure they aren’t left without a solution. Buying becomes a long-term goal, while renting serves as a safety net that they activate in the meantime.
This dual-search strategy has a hidden cost: it takes up time, scatters buyers’ energy, and fosters a wait-and-see attitude, with everyone keeping one foot in each market because they cannot fully commit to either one. It also fuels rental market pressure, since creditworthy households—who should have become homeowners—end up adding to an already strained rental demand in major cities.
This phenomenon continues a trend already documented by the platform. A previous study had shown that the type of property—apartment or house—was now only a secondary criterion for 46% of buyers.
Once again, this signals a forced trade-off: when supply becomes scarce and prices block access, personal preferences take a back seat to the sheer feasibility of the project. People no longer choose based on their desires; instead, they adjust their desires to what remains accessible. For landlords and investors, this shift is not without consequences: the presence among tenants of those who initially intended to buy tends to bolster the solvency of rental demand, but it also reflects a postponement of home-buying plans that will, in the long run, weigh on the volume of transactions. The rental market is absorbing what the home-buying market can no longer keep moving.
When Housing Is No Longer a Choice
This shift challenges the collective narrative on housing. For more than half a century, homeownership has been presented as a natural step, a clear dividing line separating those who own from those who rent. The reality depicted by these figures is more fluid: a single household can, in the course of a single search, shift from one category to the other—not as a wealth-building strategy, but out of necessity. The divide between these two worlds, long perpetuated by public policy, is dissolving under market pressure. For decades, homeownership has shaped household savings and their relationship to wealth; the fact that one-third of prospective buyers are simultaneously exploring rental options speaks to the erosion of this model.
For professionals and public authorities alike, the message is less trivial than it seems. When one-third of homebuyers—and four out of ten in the Île-de-France region—have to come up with a Plan B involving renting, it means that the housing system is no longer fulfilling its primary function: enabling everyone to find housing that fits their life plans. As long as the housing supply remains constrained, the line between buying and renting will continue to blur—and with it, the very notion that finding a place to live is a matter of choice.
