Squats: why are there so many vacant accommodation in Toulouse?
The owners of vacant housing are sometimes singled out, accused of abandoning buildings to the detriment of the most precarious. But is this still the case?
While the evacuations of squats are increasing in Toulouse, the question of the use of vacant housing in favor of precarious people is often asked. But how to explain this phenomenon? Why do dwellings remain inhabited for several months or even years?
First, the numbers. In the Toulouse Métropole sector for example, on the 373,395 private housing account (according to INSEE). 37,181 of them are vacant, be almost 10% (9.96% to be completely precise).
But this figure hides big differences. Concretely, an unoccupied accommodation for a month – because its owner is waiting to find a new tenant for example – is vacant accommodation. It therefore enters the statistics in the same way as a house that has been inhabited for five years. With such differences in the situation, it is difficult to offer a relevant analysis.
To make this data more readable, INSEE cut the pear in half. On the one hand, dwellings that have been vacant for less than two years, on the other hand, those inhabited for more than two years. In this second category, the proportions are not at all the same. In Toulouse and its metropolitan area, 4,738 private dwellings vacant for more than two years have been listed by the INSEE, which represents 1.27% of the total private real estate stock.
“They are tired of fighting”
However, we do not know the proportion of housing that could go from the first (vacant for less than two years) to the second category (vacant for more than two years).
How to explain such a figure? For David Pratas, real estate agent in Toulouse, it is the weariness of owners who have had bad experiences with their tenants that is the cause. “We see that many elderly people who have had bad debt problems with tenants have preferred to throw in the towel rather than re-renting. They are tired of fighting, ”he explains.
However, these owners do not wish to part with their property either: “The stone is a safe haven. To put it simply, if the banks collapse tomorrow, the walls will still be there. Some owners also wish to keep their heritage to pass it on to their children or grandchildren ”. An observation by Nadine Cazalbou of the UNPI31, an association for the defense of owners and co-owners: “In addition to these difficulties, you also have owners who have received goods, but who do not have the means to carry out the damage. work for renovations and which can be very expensive ”.
Thus, some prefer to pay the various taxes (land and vacant housing) rather than renting it or separating from their property. “For many, owner is synonymous with wealth, while this is far from being the case, it is also this state of mind that must be changed” analyzes David Pratas.