A third of all homeowners in France own at least two properties

Around 9.7 million people in France – a third of all homeowners – own at least two properties, either individually or jointly, new data from Insee has revealed.

The French statistics office noted that by and large, individuals that own more than one property tend to be older and ‘more well-off’. Six in ten of this cohort own two homes, while 3% own ten or more.

‘The more properties they own, the higher is their standard of living,’ Insee said.

Two out of three homes in the private sector are owned by at least one multi-owner, a trend particularly common in tourist-heavy areas and in the central areas of large cities, with these owners typically renting out additional properties located close to their home. However this pattern varies from region to region, Insee noted.

Notably, half of all privately rented homes are owned by individuals that own five or more properties, even though these landlords make up just 4% of all property owners. Read more here.

Energy vulnerability

Elsewhere, separate data from Insee found that around five million households in metropolitan France – representing 17.4% of the market – were considered to be in a state of ‘energy vulnerability’, which means that they would need to spend a large share of their income on energy to maintain a standard level of comfort in their homes, compared to other households.

Insee’s data, which dates from 2021, found that half of the vulnerable households consist of single people aged 60 years and over, with the rate of vulnerability depending on location, as well as being shaped by factors such as climate, urban density, and income levels.

‘Rural areas, where the housing stock is organised around individual dwellings, often of large surface, and where domestic fuel oil is still frequently used, generally had higher rates of energy vulnerability,’ Insee noted. Read more here.