Grenoble will be authorized to put in place rent control, as she had been demanding for a long time, the Ministry of Housing announced on Monday. “The government announces the implementation of rent controls in the territory of the Grenoble metropolis. A decree opens the possibility of controlling rents to control their rise and protect the purchasing power of tenant residents», Indicates the ministry in a press release. “For rent control to be effective, a prefectural decree setting the maximum rent level will be issued during the year 2024», Continues the ministry.
Several years of waiting
Rent control, which sets a maximum rent (in euros per m²) which cannot exceed 20% of a reference rent decided by a prefectural decree according to several criteria (district, date of construction of the building, number of rooms, furnished or not), is applied in ParisLille, Lyon, Villeurbanne, Montpellier, Bordeauxand in the intermunicipalities of Seine-Saint-Denis Plaine Commune and Est Ensemble. It should soon be available in 24 municipalities in the French Basque Country, including Biarritz and Bayonne. It is currently applied as an “experiment” which must end in 2026, a possible prelude to its perpetuation in law.
The city of Grenoble, led by ecologist Eric Piolle, had been demanding for several years to be able to apply it, which the government had until then refused, arguing that the real estate market there was not tight enough to justify it. “Rent control will enrich the tools available to the community to offer affordable housing to residents, in addition to other levers, in particular that of the production of social and intermediate housing.», concludes the ministry in its press release.