GUADELOUPE AND THE CONSTANTLY RISING DEMAND FOR HOUSING

With more than 35,000 social housing units representing a little more than 21% of the main residences, Guadeloupe finds itself in 5th position in the regional ranking for social housing rates. The reality is all the more worrying because it is estimated that 75% of Guadeloupian households could be eligible for social rental housing.
According to an INSEE report from 2017, outlining the situation on January 1, 2016, the 20% rate of social housing – 25% in some municipalities – established under Article 55 of Law 2000-1208 of December 13, 2000 on solidarity and urban renewal, would show huge disparities from one municipality to another. For instance, there is a proportion of more than 51% of social housing in Cap Excellence, compared to only 6% and 10% respectively on the Riviera du Levant and Nord Grande Terre. When adding up all the social housing in the regions that do not respect this 20% rule, the cumulative deficit would be as much as 8,200 missing social housing units. The study adds that in order to balance this deficit, it would be necessary to create 1,880 new social housing units per year, for 10 years in a row.
It is important to consider the demographic dynamics with this growing demand, because although Guadeloupe has a sustained birth rate, the migratory deficit counterbalances this dynamic to eventually show, since 2006, a very limited increase in population of a mere 0.1% per year. The surge in housing demand is exclusively linked to the loosening of households, which in 30 years have gone from an average of 3.8 people to 2.3 people

Due to the relative youth of Guadeloupe’s rental housing stock and the ongoing effort to build new housing, households have been able to enjoy a certain level of material comfort. In fact, more than 50% of the main residences built since 2006 no longer have any construction defects, compared to only 22% of the pre-1975 constructions. Needless to look at these figures under a magnifying glass to understand that the rental stock is ageing, and that some constructions have reached a deterioration point of no return, where, faced with the permanent risk of earthquakes, only demolition followed by reconstruction is conceivable In certain particularly disadvantaged neighborhoods, this urban redevelopment is becoming an active fight against poverty and exclusion. The challenges are such that they require an improvement in the living environment of a population that is on the one hand aging, and on the other hand unemployed – a situation in which delinquency and insecurity seem to be the only winners.
The bet on this renovation does not stop there but includes a factor of social diversity that will ultimately enable senior citizens, modest households and students to reinvent neighborhood life in new buildings where outdoor facilities will be of equal importance to the quality of the rental housing. In this way, the renovation of housing – and whenever too dilapidated, its reconstruction – goes hand in hand with the development of public spaces as well as the construction of commercial space so as to enable these less fortunate neighborhoods to regain attractiveness in the eyes of the population.