Purchasing power: towards the extension of the rent cap to 3.5%

While the rent cap, put in place last summer on an exceptional basis, must end on June 30, the Renaissance deputy of Gironde Thomas Cazenave proposes to renew this measure of protection of purchasing power by maintaining its ceiling rate at 3.5% for private tenants, traders and SMEs for nine months.

"There is a risk that tenants, craftsmen and traders will encounter difficulties in the coming months because we still have a difficult period ahead of us with inflation expected to remain high (5.4% expected in June year-on-year, according to INSEE)," explains the MP. We want to help them and extend the rent shield until at least the first quarter of 2024, when inflation is expected to fall. »

Rapid adoption sought

His bill, tabled at the end of last week, was validated on Tuesday by the services of the Assembly, and the deputy was appointed rapporteur on Wednesday morning. The text should be examined by the Committee on Foreign Affairs next week and, subsequently, by MEPs. It already has the support of groups close to the majority – MoDem and Horizons – and is expected to reach consensus in both assemblies for rapid adoption.

This anti-inflation shield, included in the law of 16 August 2022 on emergency measures for the protection of purchasing power, caps at 3.5% the rent reference index (IRL) for tenants and the commercial rent index (ILC) for SMEs until the end of June. Its extension is "a response to continue to protect our tenants, individuals and professionals," insists the MP. We cannot leave them with nothing after June 30, when inflation is still there and we have a weakened network of independent traders. »

"Reaching the end of the inflation peak"

The Minister in charge of Housing, Olivier Klein, said he supports "strongly this proposal in the service of the purchasing power of tenants, especially the most modest and the middle classes," said his office, recalling that the device has proven its worth.

"Without the cap, the increase could have been up to 6% in the rental stock. Inflation will decrease but the calculation of the rent revision index will not adjust immediately. The extension will make it possible to reach the end of the peak of inflation scheduled for early 2024, and the device, temporary, will therefore have protected the French throughout the period of high inflation, "he says.

Read alsoPurchasing power: what aid is planned for tenants?

The rent benchmark is used as a basis for revising the rates for furnished or empty dwellings. It sets the annual increase limits that landlords can charge their tenants when the lease includes an annual rent review clause. Its evolution, calculated each quarter by INSEE, is indexed to the evolution of consumer prices (excluding tobacco and rents) of the last twelve months.