Le Figaro Nice
On Boulevard Auguste-Raynaud, in Nice (Alpes-Maritimes), a busy road which leads to the popular Libération district, the facade of a building looks grim.
Roller shutters lowered, dusty and discolored, blinds torn off, balconies rusted by time... No doubt, the residence is abandoned, despite a building where engravings remain at the top of the two central columns.
And above all, despite its location, where apartments are highly sought after.
The case of this three-story building with no inhabitants - except potential squatters - is not unique on the Côte d'Azur and in particular in Nice.
In the Nice living area, 41,498 housing units are vacant (including properties for sale currently on the market) according to INSEE and its 2020 figure, in constant increase since the 1970s. According to the latest study by the Institute of statistics on the subject, of all the apartments in the Riviera capital, more than 10% are left empty.
In the midst of a housing crisis, where workers are struggling to find a roof near their workplace at affordable prices, the city of Nice wants to track down this type of property, which is no longer considered by its owner.
In the case of this residence, the municipality has announced that it is launching the declaration of public utility (DUP) procedures which will allow it to take possession of it in order to carry out the renovation work.
Ultimately, the objective being to make the place habitable again and to strengthen the city's social stock, far from the criteria - constantly denounced - of the SRU law (14% against 25% required).
Also read Social housing: did the city of Nice deliberately escape fines for non-compliance with the SRU law?
1800 housing units rehabilitated
Aid for a rehabilitation project had been offered to the owner of the building, explained Anthony Borré, first deputy in charge of Housing and Urban Renewal, before three letters of formal notice remained unreturned.
“I believe that this affair has lasted long enough, I am anxious to be able to respond to the housing crisis that is before us
,” insists the elected official closest to the mayor Christian Estrosi.
We can no longer wait for the city's heritage to deteriorate, for housing to be left abandoned for years."
Six other DUPs were launched for similar cases.
53 student accommodations were created on rue Pertinax, while work was launched on rue de Suisse for 19 additional apartments.
Procedures are also underway for buildings on Route de Turin and two others located on Rue de Belgique, all of these buildings being located relatively in the city center, or just a stone's throw away.
Since 2008, 1,800 homes have been rehabilitated, further boasts the municipality, which recalls that the metropolis also offers financial aid to owners to renovate their homes.
Read also Housing crisis in Nice: the Metropolis tries to regulate prices and facilitate access to goods for caregivers
Cautious landlords
For the left-wing citizens' collective Viva!, on the lookout for the subject of housing, Anthony Borré's remarks are
"properly surreal"
, they were indignant in a press release, indicating that for fifteen years, Nice had 5,500 additional vacant housing.
They further criticize Christian Estrosi (Horizons) for
“a laissez-faire attitude, a “let-speculate” approach”
and take as proof the lack of results from a housing plan by the ministry, launched in 2010, devoted to this problem.
Other buildings, in very good condition and almost ready to be inhabited, would also be without tenants, due to owners who are simply reluctant to rent their property for administrative reasons.
These walls would belong to ancient Nice families.
“There are quite a few
,” confirms Benjamin Mondou, president of Century 21 and Lafage Transactions in Nice.
But today, all these potential landlords think that the tenant has a lot of rights and they prefer not to rent to avoid constraints,”
he explains.
Among other solutions to offer new housing, the Nice metropolis also presented in December its strategy of raising certain buildings to create additional residential areas.
500 potential projects had been identified.
On the other hand, the idea of regulating rents ended up being abandoned.