Toulouse: the Metropolis faced with the need for housing
The territory of the Metropolis welcomes many new inhabitants every year. A Lab Immo organized at La Dépêche du Midi looked at how Toulouse will be able to accommodate them.
The Toulouse metropolitan area has been faced with a sizeable challenge for several years: managing to house the many new inhabitants – we are talking about 15,000 per year in the urban area – in pleasant conditions for all. A Realty Lab, organized in the premises of La Dépêche du Midi as part of the Club Eco meetings, looked into this thorny issue. “The good news is that Toulouse remains attractive, particularly in terms of employment, but this gives rise to a responsibility: that of building in sufficient quantity to be able to accommodate everyone”, explains Stéphane Aubay, President of GreenCity Immobilier and of the FPI (Federation of Property Developers) of Toulouse – Occitanie.
For this, the Metropolis is counting on the construction of 7,000 housing units per year on its territory (10,000 on the urban area). “But you should know that to obtain the construction of 7,000 housing units, you have to ask for 20 to 25% additional building permits, because a certain number of operations will ultimately not take place, for various reasons”, specifies Stéphane Aubay. Another pitfall that has had to be overcome in recent months: the Covid, which has pushed back construction. Between 2019 and 2021, sales of new homes fell by 40%… “This shortage of supply is one of the reasons for the rise in prices,” says the president of the REIT.
lifestyle changes
Faced with a supply that has dried up and prices that have increased, everyone has adapted with their weapons. The Toulouse metropolis is notably in the process of setting up a metropolitan OFS (Solidarity land organization). “It will allow us to distinguish the building from the land, and thus be able to offer prices 20 to 30% lower than those of the market, develops Bertrand Serp, president of Toulouse Métropole Habitat, l‘Public Office of the‘Habitat de la Métropole Toulouse jointly committed to the development of social housing (see below). Our objective is to bring out of the ground 200 housing units by one via this device. »
Toulouse will also have to adapt to the changes in lifestyles brought about by the health crisis and by access to new technologies. “It is even a change in the model of regional planning, considers Jean-Michel Fabre, president of the USH (Social Union for Habitat) Occitanie. We are at a time of very profound change in the organization of our territories. We notice this in our activity, where there is a reduction in the programming of the construction of new social housing in the heart of the Metropolises for example, but a stability or even an increase outside, in peri-urban or rural territories and medium-sized towns. The desire for nature and the development of telework has and will change everything. “” We must not stay on old patterns of thought, supports Bertrand Serp. We do not experience housing in the same way as before. The younger generations, in particular, no longer buy housing in the city but spend most of their lives there. It must be taken into account. »
“70% of French people have the right to social housing”
Social housing and its development in the heart of our cities is one of the challenges that the public authorities are keen to take up. Toulouse Metropolis Habitat, l‘Public Office of the‘Habitat de la Métropole Toulouse, thus aims to increase its supply of new social housing to 800 per year in the city of Toulouse, after the Covid has brought a brake on production. An increase in the offer made possible in particular by the consolidation of its own funds via a subscription of 13.5 million euros of participating securities. “This will allow us to continue our development”, assures Bertrand Serp, the president of Toulouse Métropole Habitat.
The actors of social housing in the Region must face the same problem: to produce more and better to support an ever-strong demand. “There are 300,000 social housing units in Occitania, including 90,000 in Haute-Garonne and 67,000 in the Toulouse metropolis, explains Jean-Michel Fabre, president of the USH (Social Union for the‘habitat) Occitania. In the department of Haute-Garonne, we had 45,000 active applicants last year. In the Region, this figure is 150,000. Our objective is therefore to make up for the delay in the supply of housing: by 2030, we want to have integrated 100,000 new housing units. By adapting to an equation that is not always easy to solve: the construction of social housing must be a financially “white” operation, that is to say that the rents (capped, and even reduced for the beneficiaries of the ” solidarity rent reduction”) must cover the repayment of the loan taken out by the organisation. Other pitfalls must be avoided, in particular the ever-higher price of land which will push social housing players to build more densely or to develop rehabilitation operations for existing housing. “Thanks to the EPFL (Local Public Land Establishment), we have also chosen a financial engineering tool that allows us to regulate land,” adds Bertrand Serp.
Strong demand
Because the demand for social housing is strong in France. “70% of families can have access to one of the forms of social housing, points out Jean-Michel Fabre. This is the French conception of social housing, which offers very low rents to very low incomes, and more moderate rents to slightly higher salaries. One out of two French people has gone through the social housing process at some point in their life. But today we have to deal with an increasingly low turnover: some can no longer leave social housing, because home ownership and the private rental market are too expensive. »
On the social housing front, the public authorities are multiplying initiatives to enable as many people as possible to find housing at a lower cost. “Since 2014, Toulouse Métropole Habitat has sold around a hundred housing units from its stock per year”, reveals Bertrand Serp. An interesting solution for buyers and which also allows the organization to replenish its own funds and thus build new housing. Toulouse has also put into practice the solution of controlled prices, which cap the price of a certain number of dwellings on the territory of the city at €3,000/m2. A zero-rate loan is also always open to first-time buyers who do not exceed a certain level of income.
IN NUMBERS
15000
The number of new inhabitants in the urban area of Toulouse
7000
The objective of building new housing by a fixed by Toulouse Métropole
300000
The number of social housing units in Occitanie, including 90,000 in Haute-Garonne and 67,000 in the Toulouse metropolis
100000
The objective of new social housing by 2030 pursued by the Region
70%
The number of families eligible for social housing in France