The budget debate began this week in a state of total confusion, which is hardly surprising. While media attention focused on pension reform - its suspension, postponement, repeal... - the ball of amendments was in full swing. No fewer than 1,500 were examined in the first week by the National Assembly's Finance Committee, many of them worthy of entry in the Lépine competition for the most unproductive tax.
One of the main victims of this tax hysteria is, unsurprisingly, real estate, at a time when the sector is going through an unprecedented crisis. The latest barometer from the Conseil national des greffiers des tribunaux de commerce (National Council of Commercial Court Clerks) notes a near doubling of company write-offs in the real estate sector in the space of a year. And Altares reports a 45% increase in developer bankruptcies in the last quarter.
There are at least three arguments for stopping this chainsaw massacre. Real estate meets a primary need: for citizens to find a place to live, and for businesses to operate in the best possible conditions. Real estate generates tax revenues because, unlike capital, it does not travel. Real estate creates direct, indirect and induced jobs in local areas. What doesn't a president, minister, MP or technocrat from Bercy understand about this triptych?
There are 150 ways to revive the market, but we're only going to mention three.
Lower and more stable taxes to make real estate investment more attractive. A stabilized tax framework is almost more important than yet another incentive scheme that will be twisted or offset by yet another coercive measure. So, let's opt for a depreciation that everyone understands, and stop making tax innovation the alpha and omega of housing policy in this country.
Simplify the standards that freeze real estate assets in their original uses, while demand evolves towards more mixed-use. Transforming an office into housing should not become a Via Dolorosa for the operator, investor or financier.
Last but not least, we need to put an end to the "dirty mouth" attitude towards real estate players, the caricatures that make investors look like vultures, promoters look like concreters, brokers look like crooks. It's with this kind of stereotype that people decide to block rents or refuse to sign building permits. It's with this kind of cognitive bias that we atrophy supply and reinforce the famous rent.