The Prime Minister does not act by announcing his method to reduce the public deficit. On July 9, he praised his decision to modify with effect of January 1, 2026 the conversion coefficient of electricity, which served to convert energy really consumed into primary energy, lowering it from 2.3 to 1.9, which is also the value chosen by our European neighbors. The DPE in force will be automatically recalculated and available free of charge on the ADEME website. This gesture caused many reactions, between firm hostility and enthusiastic approval. What will he train? The accommodation using electric heating or equipped with an electric hot water tank will be rehabilitated in the energy performance diagnosis scale. François Bayrou himself estimated that 850,000 dwellings on the approximately 5.3 million classified F and G in France would emerge from the infamous status of energy coat, which especially makes the goods concerned unfit for rental. To put it differently, the hemorrhage of the private rental fleet is partly contained.
Why did Matignon take this option? For three essential reasons. First of all, France is criticized for wanting to do better than the whole world and in particular the other countries of the community in terms of energy transition from housing, forcing the pace, without measuring the impacts for households. The future coefficient aligns us with Europe. Then, geopolitics came into account: the supply of gas subjects us to countries with which our relationships are not serene, making us run the risk of costs of costs on simple oukase of our suppliers, while our electric sovereignty is better guaranteed. Finally, and this cause is not the least, reintegrate in the operating rental park hundreds of thousands of homes.
A measure rejected by experts and consumers
Rejection reactions came from two large sources, experts and consumers, representing tenants or more broadly the modest inhabitants, including owners occupying their accommodation. The experts in the sector have in particular expressed themselves within the Higher Construction and Energy Effective Council (CSCEE), the opinion of which was required on what is still a draft decree for which Matignon launched a public consultation until August 5. They considered that the method was twisted, that the mode of calculation of the DPE did not have to be touched and that the tool was disqualified to obtain results managed by political considerations. It is true that this brutal change, if confirmed at the end of the consultation procedure, will disturb the spirits, by throwing a more doubt about the seriousness of the DPE, even on the reliability of the diagnosticians.
These professionals are absolutely not involved since it is the official software established by the public authorities, used by them, which will be modified and that it can only apply the developments, without any initiative or room for maneuver. However, the last link in the chain often pays the price for reluctance or concerns of opinion. Regarding the fears of the representatives of the tenants, we can understand them: they fear that the energy owners energy -consuming and equipped with electricity feel absolved in a way and do not carry out work to improve their accommodation in its private parts – if we are in co -ownership – or are no longer engines in collective decisions to improve the building. The consequence would be that the invoices of the tenants of these dwellings, but also of the low -income checkers, do not decrease.
Method change
This point is obviously crucial for tenants: the resilience climate law, by assimilating the lack of ecological performance of accommodation, had the right to be sanctioned by the prohibition of renting or re -stating, according to a calendar up to 2034, and to increase the rents of the current leases concerned. The legislator had thus wanted to exert strong pressure on the landlords, threatened to have to give up the destination of their investment. The observation of land that the constraint did not lead to changing the reality of the rental park tilted Matignon to requalify part of the housing, which could be estimated disadvantaged when they were equipped with electricity compared to the others.
Should we deduce that we come back to the environmental change momentum of this part of the park? No, but we come back clearly in part to the method: from coercion, to work since the law of 2021, we come back to conviction and support. Because finally, Maprimerenov still exists and is even a victim of his success, to the point of having to play a closed counter this summer for overall renovation operations. Coercion was dissuading the investment candidates: for two years, their proportion among the buyers of existing housing has been reduced by a third party: we have thus lost the order of 100,000 rental housing units which should have abounded the offer. At the same time, this offer has been reduced, with a number, certainly not evaluated but substantial, sales of rental housing and becoming main residences of ownerships. Finally, it is clear that the donors who do not take action grow and this rental fleet is weakened, while the accession is down and the rental offer is crucial.
An understandable choice
The tension on the private rental market is at its historic summit, with metropolitan areas in the queues of 50 to 200 people for the same property. The situation in medium -sized, less violent cities is also painful. The postponement on social housing is obvious, with 2.8 million suffering applicants. Under these circumstances, the government’s choice is understandable and it prevails the urgency of households on the apparent perfection of the obligation, supposed to transfigure the real on a snap. The fact remains that this reduction in law of the obligation to carry out work to be able to continue to rent the most poorly classified accommodation in the DPE scale, far from allowing the actors to release their efforts, places them in the face of a de facto obligation. Banks, property administrators, owners’ associations, contracting authorities, the State and local communities, all must continue the site.
The technical weaknesses of our residential housing stock do not disappear with the change in primary energy coefficient assigned to electricity. In this country, which cherishes obligations as much as it tance them, it is time to learn to advance by conviction … and probably soon with much less aid. The property, if it bends a little less under the yoke of prohibitions, must reassess the responsibility attached to it, in particular for the service to the tenants.
