Review the timetables of the Climate and Resilience Law: a historic error

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The bill from deputies Bastien Marchive and Inaki Echaniz authorizing co-owners to deviate, under certain conditions, from the ban on the rental of thermal strainers will be examined by the National Assembly in committee starting this week. A “pragmatic” adjustment, according to Henry Buzy-Cazaux, founding president of the Institute of Real Estate Services Management, who however calls on the government “not to undermine the relative work of conviction already accomplished”.

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It has only been a cry since the Climate and Resilience law was promulgated on August 22, 2021: the timetables it set to achieve the environmental transition of housing are untenable. We must indeed speak of these chronologies in the plural, with three major projects, land sobriety with a two-stage trajectory, the halving of land consumption by 2030 at the latest and a halt to the artificialization of land. in 2050, the transformation of the rental stock in stages with the eradication of poorly classified housing in 2034including short-term furnished rentals, and in co-ownership the establishment of an energy performance diagnosis (DPE) before 2026 for all buildings – according to a decreasing chronology according to size – and multi-year work plans (PPT) no later than 2025 – obligation phased according to the decreasing size of the buildings – with a view to their rapid completion. The pleas of the intermediate bodies are almost unanimous, with only a few jarring dissonances.

We thus recall the bold communication from the developer Vinci Immobilier, a subsidiary of the construction major, which has committed from 2022 to achieving the land saving objectives twice as quickly, the halving of land consumption in 2025 and the end of artificialization in 2040. Competitors have remained silent at best and some have denounced the marketing stunt by doubting the sincerity of the commitment. In the same state of mind, when Michel Barnier in his general policy declaration before the national representation committed to “evolve”, “simplify” or “adapt” environmental regulations, many heard that the schedule would be relaxed or stretched. They listened to the speeches of the Minister of Housing and Urban Renewal upon her appointment, and again heard words of hope. None of this is founded, and ultimately, does it have to be? No, for three main reasons.

Real estate insurance premiums will increase sharply in 2025

The first is political in the first sense of the term, relating to the interest of the country and our cities. Climate disruption, long distant and, to put it bluntly, abstract, is upon us. The multiplication and worsening in intensity of episodes of drought, flooding, shrinkage and swelling of clays, the uninterrupted retreat of the coastline, are testing our territories and our cities and threatening the integrity of our buildings and our lives. How can we be indifferent to these realities? We hear that we have little weight at the planetary level, between China and the United States, who are not very concerned about this subject… Certainly, but the argument is fallacious: if each country shelters behind it, the planet is condemned, and Pierre Mendès-France was wrong to maintain that “we must never sacrifice the present to the future”. Above all, the consequences of this climate change here will affect, from tomorrow, the very life of buildings: real estate insurance premiums, multi-risk building, multi-risk housing or building damage, will increase sharply in 2025 already and experts predict doublings and triplings, if not more, in the years to come. Property runs the risk of uninsurability. And of course, all the other adjustment variables will intervene to save the general balance of the system, from the increase in deductibles to the reduction in coverage. Macroeconomic proof: the legislator is in the process of completely reviewing the collective regime for natural disasters, on which all insurers depend and which allows compensation for victims in such cases.

The second crucial reason why it is inappropriate to rework the calendars is never mentioned, even though all the players demonstrate at their level that it exists: feasibility. Yes, this transition is difficult, even painful, but not impossible. How many start-ups provide solutions, particularly in terms of financial engineering! The banks, at their own speed, are joining the dance and developing offers. Trustees of all sizes and rental managers offer answers. Public aid is still theredespite the alarming state of our finances. Available household savings can also be mobilized for this cause, more abundant than ever in the history of France. Developers learn to work on existing buildings, to use wastelands, hypermarket parking lots, in short to do not go looking for new land rights. House builders are inventing concepts of two-story houses, on smaller lots, and extending or raising houses already there. They also know how to divide large plots of land of houses built in the past to build another house, which can encourage intergenerational housing. In short, the professional community, while it raises its fist against the demands of ecological transition, proves that it knows how to deal with it.

A pragmatic bill

Finally, and the third reason is not the least, it has taken fifteen years, since the Grenelle 1 and Grenelle 2 laws, to build momentum for energy modernization in the real estate sector. Awareness will have taken almost a generation. And we would choose at that moment to twist the message and weaken the strategy? A historical error. An extreme party, in a sense the first party in France following the last legislative elections, is pleading for the Climate Resilience law to be torn up: it takes up the demands of a large part of the sector, which is almost embarrassed… How could we blame this party? He is extremely attentive to claims and complaints. The other parties should have composed sooner, made corrections and not exasperated the population, who are falling into radicalism against the environmental transition. They have paved the way for anti-ecological progress fundamentalism. The fact remains that the government must not today undermine the work of conviction already accomplished. If a co-ownership manager, a promotion program manager hears that the calendar is being reviewed and corrected, he will lose all desire and all strength. Momentum will be compromisedand it will be irrevocably. It is better to take stock a few weeks before each deadline and grant a delay or mitigation of circumstances, rather than rescheduling everything, confirming that we are compromising with the final course. Thus, the proposed law supported by the executive taking into account the vote of a co-ownership regarding work enhancing the energy efficiency of a building, even though it has not been carried out, constitutes a justified and pragmatic adjustment.

Valérie Létard is a minister who respects reality, professionals and owners, and also carries a vision for housing. It is up to him to succeed in a delicate exercise: find the narrow path between inflexibility, which would only lead to revolt, and relaxationwhich would compromise the success of the final ambition, just vital for real estate, whether he recognizes it or not.