Paris (France) (AFP) – To pay for their accommodation, Adelino cuts back on vacations, Léa limits outings and food expenses and Dorothée reduces her heating. Constraints which illustrate the high cost of living, at the heart of social anger this fall.

Published on: 08/11/2026 - 16:04

Tenant of a two-bedroom apartment in the south-east of Paris, Adelino Abraham says he "earns enough for a living" so that housing is "not a problem".

The 34-year-old artificial intelligence engineer still spends 40% of his income on his home, where he lives with his wife and two daughters.

Housing is the number one item of expenditure for the French. And among households, one in ten spends more than 40% of their income on their housing (charges and taxes included), according to INSEE.

“To be able to stay in Paris, we take fewer vacations, we rather go to grandparents’ houses where we don’t spend too much,” notes Adelino Abraham.

Léa, a national education psychologist who did not wish to give her name, pays 1,080 euros in rent, or “half of (her) salary”. Afterwards, there remains “a fairly tight budget for food, not many outings”. She also gave up a second osteopathy consultation after blocking her back.

Dorothée Le Gal also “pays attention to every expense”. At 42, this research civil servant lives in “a little dilapidated, damp and very dark” accommodation of 26 m² in Paris.

Her housing conditions “impact well-being and morale”, even more so in winter when she only heats “the living room and to 19 degrees”.

In the demonstrations against the high cost of living since mid-October, signs mentioning the difficulties linked to housing, however, remain rare.

“We have not heard enough about the housing problem,” regrets Eddie Jacquemart, president of the National Housing Confederation (CNL), which defends HLM tenants. “Individuals first pay their rent and then they make do with what’s left,” he emphasizes.

On average, the French devote 16.8% of their income to their housing, but for the lowest 25% of households this effort rate rises to 32.1% in 2024, according to INSEE.

Cheaper but further

A cardboard folded in two on her head with the message "The only roof we can afford", Lucile took to the streets of Paris on Thursday during the massive inter-union mobilization.

Currently in a studio with her eight-year-old son, in shared custody, the 34-year-old school teacher, who did not wish to give her last name, is "desperately looking" for a two-bedroom apartment in Paris. But with a budget of 1,300 euros, their “file goes nowhere”.

“Housing is the first constrained expense and there have been big increases in rents in big cities, and also elsewhere,” recalls Stanislas Hannoun, one of the spokespersons for the NGO Oxfam.

“With the inflation of food and energy, the middle classes are increasingly in a precarious situation, while multinationals and the big fortunes are richer,” he adds.

In this context, tenant defense associations are concerned about the freezing of housing assistance provided for in the draft state budget for 2027.

Housing prices are less highlighted than fuel prices. However, they have a direct link to the discontent around energy prices, according to Cécile Duflot, general director of Oxfam France.

“The rise in housing prices has pushed people away from the workplace and made them dependent on transport and therefore more dependent on fuel,” assures the former environmental minister.

At Safran, a French industrial and technological flagship listed on the CAC40, Stéphane Fabe, CFDT central union representative, saw “colleagues taking cheaper accommodation further away, during Covid and thanks to teleworking”.

“But today they have to choose between filling the fridge or filling the car and some are taking sick leave so as not to have to come to work by car,” says the 56-year-old employee.

© 2026 AFP

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