Posted
Finding a reasonably priced apartment or house has become a problem in many tourist resorts. This is particularly the case in Noirmoutier, where the number of second homes has driven up prices, so that year-round residents no longer have the means to find accommodation.
Every morning, Romain Gendron, house painter, comes from the continent, a 30-minute drive away, to work in Noirmoutier-en-l’Île (Vendée). “Looking at the ads, we saw that below 300,000 [euros], it was not easy”, he confides. He is however originally from the island, and works there. Noirmoutier has 66% of second homes. The health crisis has also worsened the problem. Xavier Frère, real estate advisor in Barbâtre (Vendée), assures that he no longer has “only five houses for sale”, for “about 1,000 buyers”.
With the arrival on the market of teleworkers, prices have exploded, “from 20 to 25%”, confides the agent. The mayor (DVC) of Noirmoutier-en-l’Île, Yan Balat, may have a solution: build housing on land bought by the town hall. He thus asks the State to place the island under real estate tension. The procedure makes it possible to increase the property tax on second homes, and to buy more land.