One quarter of residents in the French capital live in government-owned housing, part of an aggressive plan to keep lower-income Parisians — and their businesses — in the city.

The two-bedroom penthouse comes with sweeping views of the Eiffel Tower and just about every other monument across the Paris skyline. The rent, at 600 euros a month, is a steal.

Marine Vallery-Radot, 51, the apartment’s tenant, said she cried when she got the call last summer that hers was among 253 lower-income families chosen for a spot in the l’Îlot Saint-Germain, a new public-housing complex a short walk from the Musée d’Orsay, the National Assembly and Napoleon’s tomb.

“We were very lucky to get this place,” said Ms. Vallery-Radot, a single mother who lives here with her 12-year-old son, as she gazed out of bedroom windows overlooking the Latin Quarter. “This is what I see when I wake up.”

  • empireOfLove2@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    0·
    9 months ago

    IIRC one of the reasons the housing market in Paris must also be so tightly controlled is due to their zoning controls. To keep Paris’ identity intact, any sort of higher density/taller development anywhere inside the city’s primary core is strictly prohibited, so housing supply is almost completely static.

      • empireOfLove2@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        0·
        9 months ago

        Sure, to some extent. But most cities have the ability to grow upwards and increase density though, which can relieve some of that pressure. Paris cannot. And they usually don’t do the rent control tactics and simply price out anyone who isn’t top 20%, leaving the service workers with ever-lengthening commutes to stay in housing thry can actually afford.