Luxembourg, 20/09/2007 (Agence Europe) - On 19 September, the European Investment Bank (EIB) granted France a €500 million loan for building and refurbishing social housing. France is faced with a major imbalance between supply and demand for social housing. The current housing crisis is particularly due to a decade of insufficient building and some of the social housing stock of 4.5 million units is too concentrated in the most disadvantaged areas, which suffer from major problems of ghettoisation and social exclusion.
French Housing Minister Christine Boutin is bringing together everybody involved in the housing sector - lenders, landlords, tenants, promoters, builders, professional and housing associations - to achieve the ambitious goals set by French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Prime Minister Francois Fillon of enabling 70% of French people to become home owners and building 500 000 houses, including 120 000 social housing units, each year. Boutin commented: “A major concern of the French people is for housing to become a genuine national cause, so that everyone in our country - man, woman and child - can have a roof over their heads”.
To support this objective, the EIB is for the first time contributing €500 million to the “France Social Housing” programme, which aims to finance on highly favourable terms the investments of social landlords in the building and refurbishment of social housing. The programme is being implemented with the active support of CNCEP and the Dexia Group. (ol)