How long will the new Minister of Housing, Vincent Jeanbrun, appointed this Sunday, October 12, stay in office? It is difficult to answer this question, but in any case its primary mission will be to defend a budget, written by the Prime Minister before the composition of the government, at a minimum. The head of government is counting on parliament to amend the text, which the executive itself can enrich or correct throughout the duration of the examination in the National Assembly and the Senate. Ideally, the finance bill for 2026 will be voted on before the end of 2025. It will necessarily put the Prime Minister at risk of censure, and this is the first deadline of the mandate of all ministers. It is therefore first and foremost a budgetary mission that awaits the Minister of Housing, but he will also have to bring to fruition legal developments in preparation.
On both fields, financial and civil, what is the desirable roadmap? Stabilize and adapt. Not wanting to leave an indelible mark on his time at the ministry, at a time when the sector is weakened and troubled. Extend or anchor what works and which is at the origin of the beginning of recovery in some areas, take up the common sense intentions that Valérie Létard had expressed. The illustrations come immediately. The zero-interest loan extended to the entire territory and to individual homes has encouraged the restart of house construction and has given some impetus to promotion, helping first-time buyer households to begin their residential journey. The measure on donations, effective since last September, must be known and used. Transfer fees for valuable consideration must no longer increase and the exclusion of first-time buyers must be maintained.
“Social housing, an opportunity, not an income”, for the new Minister of Housing Vincent Jeanbrun
Housing must take its part in reducing the public deficit
The amortization project for investors in new and old buildings with works must see the light of day: it is what is missing for the rental offer to be deployed and for the promotion programs to restart, with lessors allowing the minimum pre-commercialization rate conditioning the financing of operations by the banks. The MaPrimeRenov budget must be maintained at a correct level, with an eradication of fraud. A smaller reduction in solidarity rent for HLM organizations should give them the oxygen to build and renovate. No doubt all this while conceding a reduction in the overall housing budget, which must take its part in reducing the public deficit: if the markets looked at us with dissatisfaction after the drafting of the finance law, interest rates would rise and real estate would be the hardest hit victim. Housing cannot be exempt from this responsibility, even for its own fate.
Finally, the expected texts must appear without delay and without modification: they have been the subject of lengthy consultations and are ready, whether it is the decree on the training of transaction and management employees, or the commission for the control of these activities. The proposed law relating to work in co-ownership, exempting lessors from the ban on renting until the completion of the energy renovation voted for, and also giving the means to bankers to engage in the collective loan, must be immediately included on the agenda and brought to fruition. Adapting what needs to be adapted, these are two efforts to accomplish. Take inspiration from the special laws for the construction of the Olympic village to shorten the decision-making circuits in the field of town planning, but not only that: the relationship between lessor and tenant can be made more fluid and secure, without increasing the constraints for the parties. The list of recoverable expenses deserves to be updated, like the standard trustee contract.
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Urgent that the highest dignitaries of this country pull themselves together
And then renounce the harassment of the players when the market does not require it: the proposed law aimed at combating elevator breakdowns is excessive and likely to increase costs for co-owners or sole owners; The disruption of the economic balance between the parties in commercial leases, contained in the simplification bill, is unwelcome and generates higher rents to the detriment of lessees, under the guise of giving them purchasing power.
Finally, another challenge for the new minister consists of knowing how to reassure the actors of a sector which finds itself less than all the others in the politics of short time and agitation. Housing and other real estate assets are part of the long term of construction, renovation, ownership, occupation, transmission. The jerks, the jerks, the jerks of the head or the chin, damage the sector, and it is the lives of the French which suffer first, with historical difficulties in finding housing according to their needs, then the tax revenues for the State and the communities, and employment at the end of the chain. The minister’s road map is elementary. Like everything that refers to fundamental considerations, it is demanding. Because the period inclines more towards agitation than action, and towards superficiality more than the essential. In this regard, it is urgent that the highest dignitaries of this country pull themselves together.
