France needs 400,000 additional housing units per year, according to a study

France needs almost 400,000 additional housing units per year between now and 2030, mainly because of the "shrinking of households", due in particular to divorce and ageing, according to a study presented today in Paris. The reduction in household size means that "the housing stock is being used by single people", and the phenomenon is "underestimated" by public authorities, said the authors of the study, carried out by the Union nationale des aménageurs (Unam) and the Ecole supérieure des professions de l'immobilier (Espi).