Insee and Apur have for the first time drawn up a portrait of secondary residence owners in Paris based on the Fideli file.
Generally in French people’s imagination a secondary residence is associated with a property by the sea, in the mountains or in the country but rarely in the centre of a dense city. However some cities, particularly Paris, are characterised by a having a large stock of secondary residences which is continually growing. In Paris this upward trend has amplified since 2012, linked mainly to the development of furnished rented accommodation for tourists.
The increasing number of secondary residences diminishes the efficiency of public policies concerned with the construction of new housing, by reducing the number of housing units available for households who wish to live in Paris all year round. Indeed a secondary residence is likely to remain unoccupied for all or part of the year, thereby approaching it to housing identified as vacant. This development has led Insee and Apur to, for the first time, make use of the Fideli file in order to form a clear picture of owners of secondary residences in Paris.
Secondary residences in the capital are often apartments which are generally smaller than the average, Parisian housing unit. Their owners are mainly 60 years old or more and have high incomes. 42.5% of owners have their main residence in the Île-de-France Region or in Paris, 38% elsewhere in France and 19.5% abroad. These three owner categories have different characteristics described in the note.
