F
aced with mounting warnings about France's housing crisis, the government has finally resolved to act. On April 23, French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu announced a bill to "revive housing," aiming to secure its passage by the end of the year. The move came as a real surprise. Under President Emmanuel Macron, housing policy had long remained a blind spot, treated largely as a drain on public finances.
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French government unveils urgent bill with measures on urban renewal and energy-inefficient homes
A sense of urgency appears to have forced this change of course. The private rental market has contracted sharply, while public housing is under mounting pressure, with waiting lists growing ever longer. The collapse in new construction has also produced unexpected economic fallout: a substantial drop in VAT revenues helped fuel 2024's budget overruns. The French government has learned the hard way that housing is not just an expense, but also an economic driver, and that a slowdown is costly.
