The housing market crisis in tourist regions is the social issue of the day with sociologist Jean Viard. Moreover, a demonstration is taking place today in Quiberon, in Brittany, an operation “dead beach” to denounce the inaction of local elected officials in the face of the growing share of second homes and short-term rentals. The housing crisis in Brittany has reached unprecedented levels, according to the Dispac’h collective which is organizing this gathering. We are there.
franceinfo: In fact Jean Viard, in the tourist areas, the inhabitants are in competition with the tourists, in terms of housing?
John Viard: So, there are two things: Brittany discovers what we have known for a long time on the Côte d’Azur; it’s been 20 years in Provence that there is this kind of phenomenon. Having said that, it is true that the great pandemic has displaced tens of thousands of families, who have left the very big cities, along the railway lines, to work in small towns or in villages, provided that there are good education systems. And Brittany is typical of that. So there are indeed new arrivals, some of them from elsewhere, they are second homes who have settled there, all year round, who go to Paris or Lyon once a week.
Another part is indeed people who come to settle, who compete with the locals. Afterwards with this manifestation, you have to be careful. It is pushed by people who are enough for the autonomy of Brittany, they say so in their text. Afterwards, I know Quiberon well. There were small villages, even Quiberon. But the rest was not built, because there are three fishing villages. So the houses that were built were built to be second homes, otherwise there were no houses. So they did not “take” the houses of the inhabitants, you have to be careful with the speeches.
Afterwards, there are actually 4 million second homes in France. It is the country in the world where there are the most per capita. And most of these second homes belong to people who live in the center of very big cities, very often not very far away. There are also Parisians, but for many, it is Bretons who have these houses. This is also the case all year round in Breton campsites. But the pandemic has reinforced that, and so there are new competitions.
In La Baule, for example, where there has been no construction of social housing for 30 years, there is a huge problem so that people who work and people who have salaries of 1510, 1800 euros can find accommodation , and then there is indeed this competition with local children, so it requires flexible policies, it requires reserving a few plots of land in the facilities for local kids, etc. In Provence, we have learned a little about this mechanic, but in regions like Brittany, I think we will have to get started too.
Tourist rentals, it is pointed out. All this drives up prices and makes it very difficult for some families to find where to stay…
It is absolutely obvious. Once again, Airbnb when you respect the rules, the idea was brilliant, since the idea is: when I leave, I rent my house and therefore I finance my trip with the rental. That was it originally, and it should only be that. What is true is that there are people who rent apartments or own them and do Airbnbs all year round. It seems to me that indeed there should be inspectors, but it is up to the municipalities to check, because indeed it is not the law, but the original idea was a good idea.
And in addition Airbnb, it is aimed at families. The big problem when traveling with children is that most hotels are equipped for couples. So the idea was excellent. That’s why you shouldn’t kill her. But there are people who have taken advantage of it, who have exaggerated, who chase the inhabitant to make super margins by diverting Airbnb from its project.
Where second homes pose a real problem is in Paris, where there are approximately 150,000 second homes, and these are apartments that were already there. In Paris, the 150,000 secondary residences, there, you drive out the inhabitant. In Amsterdam, I think they banned second homes in the city. Me, my position is to say in Paris, we must question second homes, that we ban them, so that people can find decent housing.