Wanted: A place to live in Paris!

Léandre is 27. He's been looking for a flat in Paris for the past two months, having visited more than 15 different places. Every day, it's the same routine: sifting through all the listings, in vain. 

He is currently staying with a family member. Despite his permanent job as an events project manager with a monthly income of around €2,400, as well as two guarantors, Léandre's application hasn't been accepted. "There were two or three apartments where I was in the final stages, so to speak," he explains. "Unfortunately, each time they chose the applications with the highest income, which I can understand as it’s more reassuring for them. There are fewer and fewer offers, and inevitably, over time, I wonder whether I made the right decision to stay in this city, even if it's very attractive."

Léandre's case is far from unique. In Paris, demand for housing has exploded in recent months. The number of rentals in the French capital has fallen 74 percent in three years, according to real estate specialists. 

"Out of four available properties, three have disappeared, which is unbelievable. As a comparison, in France over the same period, we've seen a 25 percent decrease in rental supply. It's three times greater in Paris than in the rest of the country," says Barbara Castillo Rico, director of economic studies at SeLoger. "As a direct consequence, rents started to increase roughly two years ago, and they soared in the past year, in 2023. We've gone from an increase of less than 2 percent to over 3 percent."

The Parisian housing market is also feeling the pinch of rising interest rates. Over the past two years, tenants have had difficulty buying their own home. As a result, they remain tenants for longer and don't free up their