Insee Première · September 2026 · n° 2128

In 2024, Housing Costs Less of Household Budgets Than a Decade Ago, Except for the Lowest‑Income Households

In early 2024, households in France spent 16.8% of their income on their main residence, after deduction of housing benefits. This net housing cost ratio has fallen overall over the past ten years (18.3% in early 2014), mainly due to the abolition of the housing tax. However, driven upwards by cuts to housing benefits, it rose by 1.1 percentage points for the lowest‑income quarter of households, for whom it stood at 32.1%.

The proportion of expenditure spent on housing was slightly higher for tenants in the private sector (25.4%) than for tenants in social housing (24.0%) and homeowners with a mortgage (23.3%). It was significantly lower for homeowners without mortgage (7.4%).
At a given income level, private sector tenants spent a larger proportion of their income on housing than social housing tenants, the majority of whom are in the lowest‑income quartile, whilst private sector tenants are distributed more evenly across the various income groups.

Single people and single‑parent families, who are more often tenants and have relatively lower incomes, faced the highest housing cost ratios.