The share of rental advertisements which exceed the legal ceiling in Paris is decreasing, standing at 28% (compared to 30% at the national level) according to the Abbé Pierre foundation barometer made public on Thursday.
In Paris “28% of advertisements analyzed in 2023 exceed the legal ceiling rent” according to the Abbé Pierre foundation, which notes a decrease compared to previous years. The rate was 31% in 2022 and 35% in 2021. But the foundation also notes that the measure is still applied “unevenly”.
In place since 2019
The study, which is based on the analysis of 25,000 advertisements recorded between August 2022 and August 2023, concludes that “the progression of this system” of rent control first put in place by the Paris City Hall for leases signed since 2019.
Rent control was made possible on an experimental basis by the Elan law of 2018. It prohibits landlords from asking tenants for an amount greater than a given sum, varying according to neighborhood depending on the state of the market. It applies in areas of more than 50,000 inhabitants “where there is a marked imbalance between supply and demand for housing”.
237 euros excess on average
Concretely, for tenants, non-compliant monthly rents in Paris exceed the legal ceiling by an average of 237 euros (compared to 198 euros nationally), or more than 2,800 euros per year.
For the Paris City Hall deputy in charge of housing Ian Brossat, quoted by AFP, rent control “is having its first effects (…) in particular by giving tenants a weight which changes the balance of power” with the lessor.
Still a lack of information
“The simple fact that it exists already has an effect on honest owners” some also using the standard as a “marker of the state of the market” to set a price, estimated the foundation’s research director Manuel Domergue.
Nevertheless, the fact that there are “very few sanctions, which remain affordable, encourages (some) to try it”, according to Manuel Domergue who emphasizes that the lack of information can also make it possible to “flout the law without the tenant is informed. Currently, the control of rent overruns relies on reporting by tenants.