1,000 owners of Lyon and Villeurbanne targeted by the Metropolis
Hélène Vaissière, reader of Progress: “Many students cannot find accommodation. What are you doing to improve the situation? »
Bruno Bernard: “On a housing shortage and not just for students. For ten people applying for social housing, only one application can be met. On a taken 10-15,000 inhabitants per year for a long time on the Metropolis of Lyon. On a decline in housing construction since 2016 in the agglomeration. We are working to do more, especially social housing, but we have land limits on the territory. If we don’t change the pace of development of the Metropolis, we can’t get there. We now need to rebalance our territories. There are municipalities that have lost inhabitants, I am thinking of Saint-Étienne. It is a regional planning policy that must be redone by the State, in conjunction with local authorities.
The prices of small surfaces are scandalously high with much too high returns for owners. This affects students, young people and the most vulnerable people. We have been controlling rents since November. Over the last year, it seems that rents have stagnated in Lyon or even fallen slightly, but it’s too early to see whether there is an effect or not.
We have other policies on housing which are to fight against excessive tourist accommodation. We toughened things up. There are more checks carried out by the City of Lyon. Several proceedings took place in court where the city of Lyon won against landlords who did not respect the law. It’s moving and that’s a good thing. We cannot allow that in the heart of the agglomeration, there are accommodations totally monopolized for tourist activity and which also compete with our hoteliers. To fight against slum landlords and substandard housing, we have the metropolitan housing team that controls. I have just written to 1,000 owners in Lyon and Villeurbanne, who have vacant homes, to explain to them that it was problematic, that they were going to pay an increased tax while we could manage their property and support them . »