Heatwaves: A cross-party bill to combat "kettle housing" will be tabled, announces the Housing Foundation

The proposed law plans to include the "summer comfort" criterion in the display of real estate advertisements, or to prohibit power cuts all year round to allow everyone to use a fan.

A cross-party bill to combat "boilerplate housing," supported by seven different political groups, will soon be submitted to the National Assembly, the Housing Foundation (formerly the Abbé Pierre Foundation) announced to franceinfo on Wednesday.

This bill, which incorporates the recommendations of the Housing Foundation and will be called "Zero Housing Kettle," aims to combat overheating in homes. "For three years, the Foundation has been warning about homes that become uninhabitable for several weeks a year due to extreme heat," the Foundation wrote in a press release this Thursday, citing a "social, ecological, and health emergency to which the State must provide rapid and lasting solutions."

Noting that "42% of French people suffered from the heat in their homes" during the summer of 2024 and that in France, "1 in 3 homes is a kettle" , this bill incorporates six of the foundation's proposals. First, the bill will propose including overheating in homes in the definition of energy poverty . It will also propose a ban on power cuts throughout the year so that no one is unable to use a fan.

The proposed law will also require the "summer comfort" rating of the housing's energy performance certificate (DPE) to be systematically displayed on property advertisements, a timetable for renovating rental boiler housing to be defined from 2030, the voting system in co-ownerships and the operation of the ABF (Architects of Buildings of France) opinions to facilitate the installation of solar protection and to ensure that overall renovations of housing systematically address summer comfort.

"The Housing Foundation has estimated that an annual increase of one billion euros in public aid dedicated to simple summer comfort measures would make it possible to equip all homes with air fans and sun protection by 2040," writes the Housing Foundation. The total cost is estimated at 48 billion euros, partly borne by the State, through aid including Maprimerénov, the Foundation explains.