It is a very reliable indicator and it is not encouraging for the fight against climate change. The artificialization of land last year made a leap forward in France in agricultural areas when the government passed a “Climate and Resilience” law intended to reduce land pressure. It is the developer of rural land in France, Safer, who raises the hare. And it’s quite spectacular.
In its annual survey of land prices in 2021, Safer notes that the value of agricultural land for construction has soared with a 30% increase. And that the number of operations has also skyrocketed, by 25%. These are future projects for individual houses or business areas. This is an unprecedented level of land consumption since 2009. It is explained by the Covid-19 effect: the catch-up of frozen projects and the desire for nature. But not only.
It is also a Climate law effect. The text voted in July 2021 plans to significantly reduce the artificialization of land from 2030. The owners would therefore have benefited from a window of opportunity, explains Loïc Jégouzo, deputy director of studies at Safer: “It is the anticipation of the principles of zero net artificialisation which was enacted in the climate and resilience law which provides, by 2050, for zero net artificialisation and which, from 2031, provides for a 50% reduction in this consumption of agricultural, natural and forest areas.”
And this can also create a ripple effect: the more land a municipality consumes today, the more it will be able to consume in 2030 before the objective of zero artificialisation by 2050, which still allows construction if there is compensation.
The Association of Mayors of Rural Communes (AMRF) believes, for its part, that there is strong pressure to build on the coast, in Brittany or in New Aquitaine. In particular, it asks for financial efforts on the part of the government to get out of any pavilion in the countryside. “We need additional resources if we have to rework the old building, defends Sébastien Gouttebel, vice-president of the AMRF and Mayor of Murol (Puy-de-Dôme). Perhaps we will also rework on the small collective habitat, with shared gardens, private outdoor areas. Perhaps in our towns, one in three houses will have to be demolished to recreate parking areas, garden areas. And all that, we will have to have dedicated means, because just as the big cities will always manage to get out of major office projects, housing complexes, in our countryside, we don’t have specific means to do that”.
The mayors intend to address the subject in a few days with the new Minister for Ecological Transition, Amélie de Montchalin, while the first decrees of the artificialization component of the Climate law have just been published.