December 12 – After the outbreak of the novel coronavirus in France, many front-line workers, such as nurses, cashiers and domestic service personnel, have to take public transportation to and from work in the environment of virus transmission.
On the one hand, their jobs cannot work remotely. On the other hand, they can’t afford the rent in big cities with a minimum wage (1219 euros after tax).
According to the Parisian, a new study by the French SeLoger real estate group shows that half of the 40 major cities with a population of more than 100,000 in France cannot reach the French average of 57 square meters for couples who earn the minimum wage.
In 11 of these big cities, these couples can’t rent a house of 50 square meters. For singles who earn the minimum wage, the rental space will be halved.
Seveline Amat, spokesman of the SeLoger Group in France, explained that in the era of the epidemic, the rental market is more active than the home purchase market, because some mortgage applications that could be approved before the epidemic blockade were rejected, resulting in some people having no choice but to continue renting and live. According to a study by the platform, rental housing searches rose 66% during the epidemic.
According to the report, the average rent in Paris is 32.5 euros per square meter, and a couple who earns the minimum wage can only rent 25 square meters of unfurnished apartments or 23 square meters of furnished apartments.
The rents of Paris and the suburbs are “top the best in the country” in France. At the minimum wage level, they can only rent 28 square meters in Boulogne-Biyangu or Montreuil in Seine-Saint-Denis department in Haute-Seine, 35 square meters in Argenteuil-Valle-Valle-Vale-Oise, and Saint-Denis in Seine-Denis Rented 38 square meters.
In the case of large cities in the provinces, couples who earn the minimum wage can rent 42 square meters in Aix-Provence, the deputy capital of the mouth of the Rhône, 43 square meters in Nice, the capital of the Alps-sur-Mer, Bordeaux, 47 square meters in Bordeaux, the capital of Gironde, and Lyon, the capital of Rhône. 48 square meters.
In contrast, the situation in medium-sized cities is very different. Couples with this income level can rent 86 square meters in Saint-Étienne, the capital of Loire, 79 square meters in Brest, the deputy capital of Finistaire, and 76 square meters in Millus, the deputy capital of Upper Rhine.
Severin Amat said that when the poor have no access to social housing, sometimes they have to “go further” in the rental market, for example, sublease is not uncommon in the housing rental market.
In housing-stressed areas, even if a couple earning the minimum wage combined earns three times the rent, it is not easy to rent a house and must submit a file for screening, and at this stage, the landlord or intermediary usually chooses the highest-paid applicant. Severin Amatt candidly say that renting a house faces a more complicated situation for low-income employees.
