the opinion of Monegasques on housing in the Principality
For the third and last article of our file obtained at the accommodation, we asked your opinion on the question. Many of you have sent us your testimonials.
This is one of the Principality’s greatest challenges: meeting the growing demand for housing, over an area of two square kilometres, by combining the need to remain attractive to foreign residents and the need to ensure that every Monegasque to be given priority accommodation.
With the National Housing Plan, the Prince’s Government and the National Council have attempted to provide the first elements of a response to this problem. But what do the first concerned, namely the Monegasques, think? Many of our readers testified and suggested areas for improvement.
A better distribution, for more choice
Starting with giving more choices to future tenants. Sylvie regrets that the current system “ do not take into account the needs and real [que les Monégasques n’ont] no choice. ” Same observation for Kentin, who says to himself ” not satisfied at all. To find accommodation is a hassle and moreover when we are offered something, we have no choice it’s that or nothing!!! A shame !!! It makes you want to go live in France, at least we have the choice for apartments. »
Another Internet user also contacted us by private message. For him, the re-allocation of housing according to the number of occupants is necessary, but the rents must be adapted accordingly: “ An apartment must be adapted to the composition of the household and once the children have left, the apartment must be returned to the rental sector for families who need it. Retirees who live alone in a five-room apartment, while families with 3 children expect this type of apartment in three-room apartments. This requires the rent to be adjusted. I have as an example a person who has had a 4-room apartment for 38 years and who pays 700€/month. Today she is alone. But cannot/will not move because the 2 or 3 pieces offered to him are certainly smaller, but above all more expensive even with ANL [Aide Nationale au Logement] that its 4 pieces… suddenly it does not move. This mobility needs to be encouraged. »
In a second step, the solution could, according to him, come from the actual occupation of housing: ” I think that Monegasques who have a property in France and who live there 80% of the time but who keep and block an apartment for a tax issue must “host” Monegasques. This blocks apartments for first-time buyers, for example. I am for the creation of a post office box to allow these people to benefit from an address in Monaco without having a mobilized apartment. There are plenty of lines of thought, but we cannot constantly enlarge the national park without asking the question of mobility. The HCC [Contrat Habitation-Capitalisation, qui permet d’acquérir le droit d’habitation d’un appartement domanial contre le paiement d’un crédit à l’État monégasque, ndlr] is an example. You “buy” your apartment, suddenly some can have their 5 rooms in the old one while the buyers in the new operations cannot, or with difficulty, because the price of the apartments is calculated on unequal criteria. The price for a 4-room apartment of 120m2 varies from 200k€ to more than 600k€. »
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Lavie, she offers another line of thought: “ Someone’s wrong attribution would be someone else’s right attribution. More choice of neighborhood, number of rooms (in line with needs). Choice of doing a CHC or renting. Based on income, but with a range of possibilities. Incomes change over a lifetime. Sometimes down, sometimes up. We need some kind of state real estate agency. It would unclog. »
” Allocation system to review … or add a zero to income. We must return to reality and no longer that of senior officials “, completes Victoria.
The problem of divorced parents
This lack of choice in housing leads to another: tenants are sometimes forced to accept living in an apartment that is not suited to their needs, or even dilapidated. Nathalie, retired from administration, contacted us by phone and told her story.
” My grandfather worked in estate administration. At the time, it was said “the Government must not make money on the backs of Monegasques and Monegasques must not be on welfare all their lives”. Unfortunately, that’s what’s happening right now. “, she laments.
In question: rents that remain too expensive, despite the ANL, since the latter does not take the charges – very high – into account. ” The rich, they are given superb accommodation with a lower ANL, and the normal people, the normal little Monegasques, only get apartments in the basement or which no one wants “, adds Natalie.
Housed in the state sector in Fontvieille since 1985, Nathalie has seen, in 40 years, the situation deteriorate completely. Today, it is for her ten-year-old granddaughter that she is fighting: ” My granddaughter belongs to the eleventh generation of Monegasques in my family. My son had not married the mother, so my former daughter-in-law did not take Monegasque nationality. After the separation, my ten-year-old granddaughter was evicted from her accommodation and told to go and live in France. So, I can tell you that I have it in my throat! My ex-daughter-in-law is now in category B, she is a cleaning lady in a school, she earns 1,800 euros a month and she was given an apartment in Monaco-Ville at 1,850 euros. My granddaughter is ten years old and she never had her own room. My son has a two-bedroom apartment, he was always refused a three-bedroom apartment because there was joint custody. The mother has a fitted two-room apartment: her bedroom is in a windowless cellar, there was no electricity at the start. I took pictures: there is humidity everywhere, mushrooms on the walls… She was forced to accept it otherwise she finds herself on the street. I went to the DASO, I was told that they only had to do the inventory for the owner to do the work. While I estimate that at 1,850 euros the rent, we have the right to have a minimum. I was also told that as the little one is a minor, she has no right to a voice. However, when there were the elections, Mr. Stéphane Valeri said that ALL Monegasques must be well housed in their country. Well, it’s not. Because all the divorced women who don’t have nationality, we put them out with the children. »
Nathalie goes even longer. For her, this problem could become generalized: “ Today, we divorce much more than before, 30 or 40 years of marriage don’t really exist anymore. But if we put our children outside, in 20 years, on the Place du Palais, there will no longer be a Monegasque for November 19. Because all these little young people, brought up in Cap d’Ail, Villefranche or Menton, will no longer love the country. They will not have lived their childhood in Monaco. Before, there was a law: any Monegasque minor had to stay in the apartment, even if the mother was not Monegasque. But at the age of majority, or if the minor left the home, or if the mother remarried with a foreigner, we recovered the apartment, which was normal. Today, this is no longer the case. »
For Nathalie, two solutions are necessary: simplify housing and overhaul the allocation system. ” We don’t need all this luxury, to have four bathrooms, marble from God knows where… Those who want luxury just have to go private. Monegasques do not always want more, simply to be well housed. (…) We must also review this story of points. If we refuse an apartment that we have been offered, for a legitimate reason, we are deducted points and for three years we cannot ask for any more. »
After alerting the National Council, and having remained unanswered to date, Nathalie is now turning to the Prince’s Palace. In the hope of finally seeing her granddaughter’s situation improve.
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