Exemption from donation rights for the purchase of housing or work financing: an ignored measurement

Free tribune

Coming into force in February, the tax exemption from family donations up to 100,000 euros for the purchase of new accommodation remains too little known. She was able to be assimilated to “a wealthy measure”, regrets Henry Buzy-Cazaux, founding president of the Institute of Real Estate Services.

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It is surprising to say the least. By the times that run, a tax measure likely to trigger investments on the part of households can only be obtained of high struggle: it took a lot of obstinacy in the Minister of Housing, Valérie Létard, and support from Matignon, so that the day will the abolition of manual donation rights up to an amount of 100,000 euros to children, small children, childhood children or collaterals for the purchase of new housing Called to be a main residence, or for energy renovation work on their own existing main residence. This system will remain in force until December 31, 2026. Curiously, while we can benefit from it since February 15, 2025, nothing happens. In fact, almost no communication is made of the measure, unknown to the general public, for which it is nevertheless intended. Diagnosis of an unfortunate situation.

The measure is however well born. It was inspired by the sector itself and the president of the federation of real estate developers, Pascal Boulanger, claims its legitimate paternity. Often, tax measures come from above, from the government or from the parliament, sometimes lack simplicity or readability, and miss their concrete target. It is not uncommon either that the Ministry of Economy adds criteria to limit the budgetary cost of a device and complicate it to the point that the public struggles to understand and adopt it. Nothing similar here, and here again, we must recognize the work of internal conviction in the government that Valérie Létard has accomplished and the pragmatism of deputies and senators, who themselves have not distorted the measure by amendments aimed at widen or on the contrary to reduce its scope. In short, it is a measure as we like, rustic and strong. We will add that it has a glorious past: it existed and proved its effectiveness while Edouard Balladur was Prime Minister … and it is its invention to Antoine Pinay, Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs of France from 1958 to 1960. It does not come out of the clear part, far from being an experimental gadget.

Assimilated to a rich measure?

On the other hand, it could be misunderstood and assimilated to a rich measure, with this display of a ceiling of 100,000 euros, finally assimilated to a height. Certain presentation of the measure aggravated the phenomenon by recalling that the current arrangement was accumulated with the abatements of € 100,000 per parent usable every fifteen years. In reality, 100,000 euros is a maximum, as for the pre-existing system. However, many parents, grandparents or great grandparents have the 10,000, 20,000 or 40,000 euros which he frequently transmitted by staggered donations, and which will serve as a beginning to an accession or investment operation, or will cover the overall ecological renovation of a house or an apartment. The measure is perfectly suited to the sociological and economic situation of our country and its families. In addition, the shooting window is also well thought out: the donation must be made before the end of 2026, but the recipients have 6 months to employ the amount received as it should be.

So why such a low notoriety of the measurement? It is not the subject of strong communication from the professions which are in the right place in the value chain, promoters, manufacturers, real estate agents, property administrators, notaries. No truly orchestrated and rowdy campaign and few punctual customer information gestures. The Ministry of Housing will launch an operation to promote the measure, with means obviously counted. It is up to private professional actors to give voice so that mass donations lead to acquisitions of new housing, in accession or rental investment, or even for young households to buy poorly classified and cheaper housing, to put them up to standards.

Value the provision

On this train, the tax revenues to be expected from the measure will not be at the appointments, that we are talking about VAT on new purchases or on the work, and it is a safe bet that Bercy finds argument there so as not to extend the measure beyond 2026. Undoubtedly the professionals concerned await the tax status of the investor, which would succeed generations of tax exemptions, and they reserve their efforts. communication. They are wrong: between the mortgages on the future status, which does not spontaneously take the enthusiasm of Bercy and the complementarity between the future status of the investor and the possibility of receiving manual donations to access it, it is urgent to make the measure relating to popular donations and embark French families in its use without moderation.

Admittedly, by difference with other devices, the zero rate loan or the Pinel, the promotion of the measure is not addressed directly to its beneficiaries, but to households which it encourages to help potential buyers, ascendants or collateral. Commercial communication specialists can find the slogans that hit the bull’s eye. It is certain in any case that the actors in the sector cannot escape the obligation to enhance the provision in question and must not risk spoiling it. They must also understand that the time is less to take powerful and costly measures for the exsangue budget than to choose relevant decisions whose efficiency will be due to marketing amplification. Basically, service companies are intimate with this logic: the success of a product will be more due to its appropriation by the public than its actual originality and differentiation. Promoters, builders of individual houses, real estate agents and rental managers may not be there in history. What is more, in the current budgetary context of our country, it is essential to fire any wood and to dismay any favorable provision. It is the case with the credit of the sector and its salvation.