Becoming an owner is more and more difficult in Toulouse and Montpellier
In Occitania, nearly 60% of households own their main residence, according to INSEE. And 30% of new residents arrive by becoming owners. But the closer you get to the regional capitals, the more it becomes mission impossible. In Montpellier and Toulouse, nearly three-quarters of couples, according to the standard portrait of INSEE, have no choice but to remain tenants.
Living in Cologne (Germany), Sacha, 26, and Katarina, 27, are looking to settle in Sète and are looking for an apartment. This is the first purchase of this Franco-German couple. They are in IT for him and PR for her. Why Sète and why an apartment? “The light of the city of Brassens… A house is too expensive… All real estate has also become so expensive…”, says Sasha. Both are part of the 30% of newcomers who buy their home when they arrive in the region, according to Insee Occitanie.
From 52% to 59% of owner households in 50 years
More broadly, in our region, 59% of households owned their main residence in 2018, certifies INSEE. This is certainly more than 50 years ago, when only 52% of households once had their main residence in the region. The proportion of owners had already reached almost 70% in the communes which today are still outside the attraction of the towns, but it was less than 50% in the areas of Nîmes, Perpignan, Montpellier and Toulouse.
Price at the top, separations, single-parent families
“Everyone obviously knows that buying in Montpellier and Toulouse is more expensive than in rural areas, but it’s good to objectify this feeling, including according to income”, comments Catherine Lavaud. The head of the territories division at Insee Occitanie confirms that “Pendant 50 years ago there was a strong trend towards homeownership but this movement is running out of steam. There is the price that ends highs; couples that separate; more and more single-parent families” to serve it is often mission impossible to buy…
Strong tourist impact in Occitania
Nearly 60% of households are therefore owners but with serious geographical income. Today, homeowners are more numerous in areas furthest from cities, where more than 70% of households own their homes. “The very tourist areas such as the communities of municipalities (CC) of the Catalan Pyrenees, Pyrenees Cerdagne or Aure-Louron (Hautes-Pyrénées), or the community of municipalities of Albères, the Vermeille coast and Illibéris, make exception with less than 60% ownership”, specifies the INSEE study, released last March. In general, the proportion of owners decreases as one approaches the large urban areas. Owners are also less numerous in the areas of attraction (1) of Toulouse and Montpellier as well as on the coast.
30% of new arrivals become owners
INSEE adds that in Occitania, in 2018, 12% of main residences (out of 2.7 million) have changed occupants and, in three out of ten cases, the newcomers become owners at the same time. And so seven out of ten rent their accommodation. But this part drops in Toulouse and Montpellier where only one household in seven moves in as an owner!
Access to property developed in all types of territories, outside the catchment areas of (large) cities, but also in cities and their suburbs, in the 1970s and 1980s, supported by public policies in favor of housing. “This boom then lost momentum, specifies INSEE. The share of homeowners has even fallen slightly since 2008, particularly in urban centres. Level of real estate prices, purchasing power and composition of households, concentration of real estate in the hands of multi-owners, constituting brakes on the purchase of one’s main residence”analyzes the institute.
345,000 homes sold between 2014 and 2018 in the region
Between 2014 and 2018, some 345,000 homes were sold in Occitania, 60% of which were houses, but only 29% around Toulouse and Montpellier, where more apartments are sold and bought. With a maxim that applies in all weathers: the more populated the geographical area, the more expensive the accommodation. With this observation: houses are less expensive in Toulouse than in Montpellier (+ €30,000 on the average price observed) “but it is the opposite in their periphery”, decrypts INSEE.
Prices per square meter are soaring…
For apartments, the price per square meter is much higher in the two large areas of Toulouse and Montpellier. “While selling prices are almost equivalent in the two city centers (€2,500 to €2,600 per square meter), they are higher in the rest of the Montpellier area (from €2,900 in the
at €3,000 per square meter in the center outside the city-centre), than in the Toulouse area where the sale price of old apartments ranges from €2,000 to €2,300 as one approaches from the city”.
Catherine Lavaud comments on a model that illustrates this situation and can be seen in the table above. “If we take a couple under 46 with one child and tenants living in a rural area and with a median income of €33,400 per year (that is also to say that half of these households earn less, Editor’s note)83% of them can buy a three-room house at an average price of €102,300 and 79% can buy a 63 m2 apartment with an average value of €119,700.
In Montpellier, barely 29% of typical couples can buy a house
Conversely, in the city of Toulouse, only 28% of them, with a median income of €36,600 per year, can afford a three-room house with an average value of… €228,600! Furthermore, 58% of typical couples can afford an apartment with an average value of €163,800.
The study thus modeled the entire geography of Occitanie: small and large agglomerations of Toulouse and Montpellier. In the former regional capital, where the median income is €33,500 for a 46-year-old couple as seen above, barely 29% can afford a three-room house with an average value of €206,100. € and 53% to be able to acquire an apartment, still 63 m2, and appears to cost €189,000 on average. This means, in hollow, that almost three quarters are obliged to remain tenants.
Olivier SCHLAMA
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Note (1): The area of attraction of a city defines the extent of the influence of this city on the surrounding municipalities, measured by commuting. An area is made up of a centre, defined on the basis of criteria of population density and population and employment thresholds, and a ring made up of municipalities of which at least 15% of the workers work in the centre. The geographical scope retained is that of the Occitanie region. It thus excludes municipalities located beyond the regional limits, although they may belong to the area of attraction of a town in the region.