Another risk for the government, which we know is minor: this Monday, two motions of censure will be examined and voted on, which will undoubtedly not win the votes of the deputies and the Prime Minister will not be forced to present the resignation of his team. He finally made use of article 49.3 of the Constitution to impose the nation’s budgets, finance law and social security finance law. We finally begin to imagine the long, relatively long time: what if the Minister of Cities and Housing, Vincent Jeanbrun, remained in office until the presidential election of 2027? A whole year to work peacefully, without the sword of Damocles hanging over your head. The probability of benefiting from this duration is high. What would it allow?
We already know the intentions that the government has revealed. A bill revisiting decentralization has been announced and housing will play a major role. The objective is to give mayors a greater role in this area, knowing that over the course of the laws, their responsibility for housing has only increased. They issue building authorizations, of course, but must also ensure the renovation of the heritage of their municipality, with dedicated tools such as planned housing improvement operations (OPAH) but also operations for the requalification of degraded co-ownerships (ORCOD), and others. Mayors can impose rental permits to combat indecency and slumlords. They also have the option of setting up residential rent controls if they demonstrate that the market in their city is overheating. On this subject, it could be a matter of not even having to obtain the anointing of the State, which is now necessary, and of being completely in control.
Towards an expanded Jeanbrun system?
This bill could be an opportunity to improve the Jeanbrun system establishing the depreciation of old rental housing. The version of the future finance law is unrealistic: the obligation of 30% of work accompanied by the obligation to obtain the performance of the letters A or B of the DPE considerably closes the measure. In practice, we are talking about major renovation operations of existing housing to provide them with the technical characteristics of the new one. In a co-ownership, this result, in itself difficult to achieve, will impose the collective decision to carry out a project with demanding and expensive work, which the majority of co-owners will refuse: even the Climate and Resilience Law does not lead them to such ambitions. And the letter D of the DPE is enough to avoid falling under the ban on renting.
The only operations that will see the light of day will concern block purchases of buildings, in medium-sized towns or rural and suburban communities, with the investor being able to decide alone on the work on the envelope and in the apartments. We can even fear that the Prime Minister’s commitment to retouch the copy, while the ink is not dry, will create a wait-and-see attitude among investors in the old one and that the system will not be used in the hope of more digestible constraints…
Towards a simplification of standards?
The government also wants to simplify the rules to boost construction and free up energy. He cited the virtuous example of the special law which enabled the construction of the Olympic village in Saint-Denis in half the time of any comparable program which would have respected common law legal procedures. The simplification of standards is also on the agenda, starting with the reform of RE 2020, according to the requirements of the report submitted several months ago by Robin Rivaton.
And then other files are cited, in a whisper or more openly, which will probably give rise to expert missions to prepare the ground. The revision of recoverable charges, set by two decrees of… 1982 for social housing and… 1987 for private housing, or even the updating of the rental relationships of the law of 1989, with the aim of better securing the parties against the risk of non-payment could intervene. We even hear that the 1965 law on co-ownership could be the subject of an overhaul to lighten it and make it more understandable and usable by trustees and co-owners. We will recall that the ALUR law of 2014 had promised a codification of co-ownership law, which was never undertaken: it would already be an opportunity to bring into consistency poorly structured and ill-adjusted provisions.
Towards better supervision of real estate professions
Finally, the supervision of professions in the real estate sector could well be improved. To begin with, we are waiting for two implementing decrees of the same ALUR law, the one which will specify the compulsory training to enter the transaction and management professions as an authorized collaborator, as well as the one which will appoint the activities control commission. Part of the profession has unearthed the idea of a professional order, in an unexpected way: the government is not indifferent to it. As he will draw lessons from MP Daniel Labaronne’s report: the minister should follow the recommendation to organize a Ségur (the name of the ministry’s street) for the real estate diagnosis and it could be that the unions will be led to regroup and be entrusted with missions normally devolved to an order, in the mode of co-regulation between State and profession.
After the political passion, which obsessed the government and the parliament, a more serene period will begin. It can benefit the real estate sector, which needs calm and consistency. The last few years have even made him forget that the temporality of public decision-making could join that of housing.
