France banks on tax breaks to tackle homebuilding slump (updated)
29/08/2014 16:50
* France can ill afford tax breaks as it reduces deficit
* PM unable to put a figure on the cost of tax relief
* New housing starts weakest since 1998, weighing on growth
(Recasts with details, adds quotes from Prime minister)
By Leigh Thomas
PARIS, Aug 29 (Reuters) - The French government offered tax
breaks to property owners on Friday in its second set of
measures in three months to reverse a homebuilding slump that is
holding back growth in the euro zone's second-biggest economy.
Braving steady criticism from the left that he is too
pro-business, Prime Minister Manuel Valls said the government
would also limit plans for rent caps, which builders and
property developers say has scared off investors.
Promises in June to slash red tape on home-builders and ease
conditions for interest-free loans have done little to reassure
a sector which is a big employer, and which has been battered by
policy switches and uncertainties since President Francois
Hollande took power in 2012.
With house construction still in decline, the Socialist
government has little choice but to increase tax breaks to
tackle a chronic housing shortage, even though it can ill afford
them as it struggles to rein in its public deficit.
"When we have a situation like this with a climate of
mistrust, we have to restore trust with decisions that are
neither political nor ideological but pragmatic and effective to
favour investment and renovations," Prime Minister Manuel Valls
told journalists.
Unveiling the latest package to revive the sector, Valls
said that the government would revise the capital gains tax
regime on property to prod land owners to sell for construction.
He also said that land owners who sell property before the
end of next year would benefit from an exceptional 30 percent
tax break on capital gains.
To boost the rental market, Valls said landlords would get
bigger tax breaks if they offered leases of at least six years
compared to nine currently.
Poor households would also pay a specially reduced sales tax
rate of 5.5 percent on newly built houses in areas deemed to be
a priority rather than the standard 20 percent.
Valls also said that rent caps planned for tight markets
would only be tried on an experimental basis in Paris, largely
eviscerating a fiercely criticised housing law enacted in March
of one of its main bones of contention.
Valls was unable to put a cost on the tax breaks when asked
but assured that it would not drive the government's current
budget strategy off track.
NO CONFIDENCE
Much to the concern of builders like Bouygues BOUY.PA and
developers like Kaufman and Broad KOF.PA , year-on-year new
home sales fell by 15 percent in the second quarter, according
to the FPI property developers association.
With housing starts at their weakest level since 1998, the
sector's slump is also choking economic growth, which stagnated
in both the first and second quarters in part because of
collapsing household investment in new homes.
Developers and builders say the situation has been worsened
by the March law, vastly increasing paperwork during home sales
and requiring rent limits in some cities.
Facing a hail of criticism, the government in June was
forced to drop a campaign pledge it would build 500,000 new
homes a year, adding to a litany of broken promises that has
made President Francois Hollande the least popular president in
modern French history.
At the same time it pledged to would cut regulations holding
back construction and revive interest-free loan schemes for
would-be homebuyers. ID:nL6N0P52BM
"A climate of confidence needs to be rebuilt for investors,"
Bouygues chief executive Martin Bouygues, told journalists on
Thursday.
"One of the big problems we have in France is that we have
to live with ... tax, legal and social insecurity as each
government is constantly changing the rules," he added.
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Housing investment graphic: http://link.reuters.com/jah69v
French house prices: http://link.reuters.com/tyx36t
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(Reporting by Leigh Thomas; additional reporting by Gergory
Blachier and Natalie Huet; Editing by Geert De Clercq and Toby
Chopra)
((leigh.thomas@thomsonreuters.com)(+33 1 4949 5143)(Reuters
Messaging: leigh.thomas.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))
Keywords: FRANCE ECONOMY/HOUSING