The month of May reminds us of our cherished tax duties and our sacrosanct annual tax return. It's also the time when the Minister for Housing, Valérie Létard, reaffirms in an interview with the daily Le Monde her intention to propose a status for private landlords to revive a stalled private investment market. In the same week that her minister, François Rebsamen, was trying to reactivate the taxe d'habitation. Which he is quick to tell us will be "modest".
Taxes and real estate are something of a love story. Well, not a totally reciprocal love affair. The Ifrap foundation reminds us that real estate taxation represents 2.2% of GDP, the highest of OECD countries, and puts this over-taxation at €30 billion for real estate property alone.
This was based on the housing accounts for... 2021. Since then, things haven't gotten much better.The Pinel scheme has been abolished, départements have been given the option of increasing transfer duties to 5%, and property taxes in France's 200 biggest cities have risen by an average of 5%, with some peaking at +50%, as in Paris.
However unproductive it may be in Emmanuel Macron's eyes, real estate brings in €97 billion in taxes every year. "A cash cow", denounce the professionals. A cow that might be better cared for if we're looking to bring a few subsidies into the public coffers.
Because the tax bludgeon has ended up scaring off investors, whose profitability in residential property fluctuates between 1 and 2% according to the UNPI. The professional organization estimates that a private lessor status, allowing a progressive amortization of the value of his investment, would give an additional return of 0.8 to 1%. A small bonus that Bercy could recoup by reintegrating these deducted amortizations into the calculation of capital gains.
We'll therefore have to wait until summer for the conclusions of the mission (yet another one!) entrusted to MP Mickaël Cosson and Senator Marc-Philippe Daubresse to set up a status for private lessors, which will be discussed (and even disputed) in the Finance Bill for 2026.
If adopted, this would send out a strong signal to revive the private investment market, which has been deserted by private individuals and which institutional investors are struggling to take over.