Metropolitics

Why isn't there enough housing in France?

Jean-Claude Driant & translated by Oliver Waine — 2012-01-11T06:00:00Z

The idea that France is experiencing a serious housing deficit, requiring a massive home-building policy is the starting point for many debates. Previously in Metropolitics, Jean-Claude Driant questioned the relevance of this solution, asking “Why build new housing?”. Here, he re-examines the causes of the affordable housing deficit and, in particular, the notion of a lack of available land.
What is the true extent of the housing deficit in France? In the initial analysis, if there really

- Debates / construction, housing, social housing, real estate, property, local urban development plan, land, intercommunality

Why Build New Housing?

Jean-Claude Driant & translated by Christina Mitrakos — 2011-01-28T10:17:44Z

Can building more houses solve the housing problem? Jean-Claude Driant shows that a simple quantitative approach does not fulfill the different housing policy goals set by the State. Rather than rejecting the analysis based on the “housing chain”, he suggests new ways to make it more reliable.
For many years, national and local housing policy has been going in two supposedly complementary directions: the growth of homeownership and an increase in building new housing. The second part of this

- Debates

The Virtues and Vices of the Growth of Homeownership

Jean-Claude Driant & translated by Christina Mitrakos — 2010-11-24T22:23:12Z

Why is it necessary to become a homeowner? Jean-Claude Driant examines the arguments for and against policies that support the growth of homeownership in France. He wonders whether the present government has abandoned the caution that up until now has guided national housing policy.
Since the 1970s, successive governments have continuously made the growth of homeownership a major issue in housing policy. Ever since Valéry Giscard d'Estaing's 1974 election campaign, the slogan “France: a

- Debates / homeownership, home-buying, social housing