For almost 40 years, there has been a succession of several tax schemes to support private rental investment. According to Insee, France's housing stock has grown by an average of 1.1% a year since the early 1980s, reaching 36.6 million homes by 1 January 2022. The Pinel scheme, which came into force on 1 September 2014, was designed to promote the building and renovation of intermediate housing for households experiencing difficulties in finding accommodation in the private or social sector. It followed the ‘Duflot’ scheme, the main criteria of which it incorporates. From the outset, this measure was designed to meet the ever-increasing demand of households. It allows private individuals investing in housing to benefit from a reduction in their income tax under certain conditions. There have been changes to the type of property concerned, the zoning and the rate of tax reduction, as well as the announcement that the scheme will come to an end at the end of 2024. The Court's assessment focused on whether the Pinel scheme had met the objectives of building and renovating quality housing and whether it had benefited the households targeted. It comes at the end of a ten-year period of tax relief, at a key time when the end of the scheme has been decided against the backdrop of a persistent housing crisis.
