Due to inflation, rents could increase in the coming months. To avoid this situation, Jean-Luc Mélenchon is calling for a rent freeze. This option is currently being studied by the government, but the Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, has expressed some reservations, in particular because, she says, retirees who offer a property for rent could find themselves in financial difficulty.
An argument brushed aside by the leader of La France insoumise: “You know that 3.5% of the population owns 50% of the housing available for rent, so enough flute with the small owner”, he said on BFMTV on Sunday May 29.
The figure put forward by Jean-Luc Mélenchon is true. It comes from a recent INSEE study, published at the end of last year. This publication says that 3.5% of households alone own half of the accommodation that individuals rent in France. To be precise, it is a million households which all own at least 5 properties.
Regarding these multi-owners, it is rather people who are in their sixties, in a couple, well-to-do, even very well-off, and who live in large cities. These multi-owners are also often self-employed and invest more in the city centers of large urban areas. For example, in Paris, Lyon, Marseille or Lille, 60% of rental accommodation belongs to owners who own at least five properties. According to INSEE, this handful of multi-owner-investors reflects a “logic of heritage accumulation”.
There are today a little more than 7 million households which are multi-owners and they constitute, according to INSEE, a group “heterogeneous”. There are those we have just mentioned who have invested massively, but there are also more than three and a half million households, that is to say half, who have two dwellings (often the main residence and a to rent out).
Among these owners, there are more modest profiles. There are, according to INSEE, assets often in intermediate professions who seek to save. There are also retirees, especially former traders, or even people who have inherited.