Housing: 5.8 million "energy sieves", mostly inhabited by their owners

In France, more than one in ten households lives in energy-intensive housing that is considered an "energy sieve" . To reduce the carbon footprint of the residential sector, the State is encouraging owners to renovate with aid and gradually banning the rental of the most energy-intensive housing.

Since 2018, the government has been recording the energy performance diagnostics (DPE) carried out and which give a rating of A, for the most efficient housing, to G, for the most energy-intensive. Housing classified F and G in the DPE are considered energy sieves.

As of January 1, 2024, the government's Data and Statistical Studies Service (SDES) identified 5.8 million housing units classified as F or G, or 15.6% of all apartments and houses.

Among primary residences, 13.9%, or 4.2 million, of dwellings are energy sieves, including 1.75 million properties classified as G and 2.49 million as F.

Among secondary residences, properties classified F or G represent 26.6% of dwellings, or 975,276. Finally, there are 600,975 sieves among the vacant dwellings.

E-rated housing is not considered to be energy sieves, but will be prohibited from renting from 2034. It represents more than 8 million homes, including one million second homes.

The majority of primary residences classified F or G are inhabited by owner-occupiers: 61%, or 2.59 million homes.

Within the private rental market, Ademe counts 567,000 G housing units and 737,000 F housing units. In total, 15.9% of properties rented by tenants to private landlords are sieves.

Still among the energy sieves offered for rental, 29.3% are owned by owners whose income is among the richest 10% in France, that is to say higher than 3,490 euros per month and per person. This represents 290,000 homes.

The social housing stock displays better energy performance, with only 7.4%, or 350,531 homes, being energy sieves.

As for E housing, 1.8 million are inhabited by tenants from the private sector and therefore threatened by the rental ban.

Ile-de-France is the region with the most energy sieves: more than a million homes, or 20% of main residences.

Burgundy-Franche-Comté occupies second place in the ranking of regions where the proportion of F and G housing is the highest (18.2%), ahead of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes (15.8%) and its 507,153 energy sieves.

The Paris metropolitan area has 1.1 million energy sieves, or 20% of Parisian residences.

The typical profile of an energy sieve is a detached house of 80 m², built before 1948, heated by electricity and located in a town of more than 100,000 inhabitants.

In 2023, the residential tertiary sector represented 58 million tonnes of CO2 emitted, or 16% of France's total greenhouse gas emissions.

Between January 1, 2023 and January 1, 2024, 13% (111,000) of F housing units were renovated and removed from this energy class and 12% (80,000) of G housing units were renovated.