Housing: “The French are deprived of their dream, it is urgent that politicians act”

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TRIBUNE – Our columnist Henry Buzy-Cazaux deplores the end of the dream associated with housing for the overwhelming majority of French people. The founding president of the Institute of Real Estate Services Management urges politicians to change their approach as soon as possible.

We didn’t even notice it. In a few years, 10 at most, public speeches, and imperceptibly professional speeches, have replaced the evocation of the dream associated with housing with that of the satisfaction of needs. The French are finding it increasingly difficult to find a solution for find accommodation that meets their needsfirst of location, then of space related to the family structure, of environmental quality now too. We no longer talk about reaching an ideal, of realizing a dream. The concrete is much more rustic and much less meaningful and energetic than it used to be. No doubt deep down, households find themselves escaping. The statistics for viewing ads on specialized portals attest to this: we look beyond what allowed you to do so, and the reality principle quickly imposes itselfWe might not worry about this shift, which corresponds to a deterioration in the housing status of most French people: after all, the main thing is that they are housed.

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In fact, it’s terrible. Housing made people happy and the search for an apartment or a house was indeed experienced as a quest for happiness, which was independence, autonomy, the pleasure of having a home, of enjoying increased comfort, of improving one’s quality of life, in particular by moving closer to one’s work or school. Finding one today is a matter of obstacle coursewith a considerable risk of disappointment. This does not mean that in the end, the individual or household will not derive any pleasure from their home, but there is a lot of self-construction a posteriori which legitimises choices often constrained by finances or by the scarcity of supply.

“Political reflection is no longer the search for the happiness of citizens”

Public policies themselves have accommodated themselves to this reduced dimension and these vanished ambitions. They have become stunted. Worse still: they abound in this sense. Thus, successive governments have been able, without repentance to this day, to explain to the French, lovers of the individual house, that they had to give it up, that it was not compatible with the environmental transition and land sobriety. Political decision-makers have not even taken the trouble to look at whether this type of housing, popular with three-quarters of families, could continue to make them happy under certain conditions. They have for the French abandoned the idea that happiness was possible. This is terrible and democratically unacceptable. Above all, it is a sign that what drives political thinking is no longer the search for the happiness of citizens.

In this regard, the candidate for the presidency of the United States gives us a lesson. Home ownership, which involves the first stage of initial acquisition, is an American ideal, especially for the middle classes. Kamala Harris proposes a plan to build 3 million housing units, collective and individual, at the cost of simplifying town planning procedures and thanks to a subsidy of $25,000 for first-time buyers. So that the dream compromised by rising prices and interest rate inflation can be reborn. It is urgent that our leaders rethink housing policy in light of life projects. Let’s put an end to narrow-minded policy, which is no longer anthropocentric, but cold, disembodied, soulless, sad. The great Ministers of Housing experienced infinite joy: making people happy. The last ministers were left with the thankless role of clip the wings of the dream. That the next one can have another approach is vital.