This is the unsurprising result of a new study by the Observatoire de l’Habitat presented by the Ministry for Housing and the Liser on Tuesday. The two quintiles of households earning the most in the country rake in more than 56% of profits that can be attributed to government aids.
The tax and social measures make up 777 million Euro of a total budget of 22 billion Euro for housing. The top quintile, i.e. the 20% earning the most in the country, can make gains of nearly 800 million Euro a month, mostly through one deduction: the “exemption on imputed rent”.
Landlords in the bottom quintile can make gains of just above 250 Euro a month with all the measures in place. Low earning renters, meanwhile, can get around just under 150 Euro a month in aids. Henri Kox, minister for Housing, recognises that this needs to be rebalanced, specifically concerning renters.
Of course, any such adaptation would go against the interests of landlord, which is over 70% of voters. But Henri Kox hopes this new study can help launch a discussion that could lead towards reform. This would go along with a reform of property tax which has already been announced.
Further complicating matters, many landlords are corporations and these were not included in the analysis.
