Illustration of a detached house © Pexels
Thermal insulation, humidity, accessibility … The challenges for better comfort in housing are multiple. A recent Ipsos survey commissioned by the Qualitel association shows that homes have become more pleasant in half a century, even if many efforts remain to be made.
Housing has changed dramatically in half a century. The Qualitel association noted this in its latest Ipsos * survey, released on June 2, which takes stock of housing in France. First observation, the configuration of the apartments and houses have evolved, as have their furnishings. In fact, more than one in two apartments is now equipped witha balcony or terrace in collective real estate. This triples the number of apartments with an exterior in less than a century. Access to this exterior area is often through the window. At home for example, the glazed area also gained 2.1m² since the pre-war period, reaching an average of 6.2m² since 2009. For apartments less than 10 years old, it rose to 4.9m², ie 1.7m² more than before the war. Another observation is that the more the years go by, the less the accommodation is equipped with storage space. Cellars and attics disappear but do not leave room for built-in storage either. In fifty years, the share of dwellings with a cellar has been divided by 12, and that of attics by 3.5. One in two homes has two or more built-in wardrobes (41% in an apartment and 60% in a house). The survey also shows that 50% of apartments over 10 years old have through-holes, against only 32% for the most recent. In terms of bathrooms, a quarter of houses have at least one shower and one bath, compared to only 6% of apartments. The shower mainly equips homes (61%), while the bathtub has been increasingly neglected over the past ten years. Also note, the bathrooms lack openings. In fact, 37% of bathrooms do not have windows. In total, only 38% of apartments have a window in this room, compared to 81% for houses. With a consequence: humidity is still the number 1 enemy of our homes: one in five homes is affected by mold visible to the naked eye, in bathrooms and bedrooms. Worse, 3 out of 10 homes have a humidity level of over 60% in the bedrooms, while doctors recommend a maximum rate of 55%. In terms of energy consumption, renewable energies are developing, accounting for 8% of individual heating methods. Thus, 10% of houses are equipped with thermodynamic or solar water heaters, 25% of the most recent are natively equipped with renewable energies, against 7% ten years ago. The number of homes that heat with gas has been halved. Thermal insulation has also improved significantly. “3 out of 10 dwellings benefited from a thermal renovation less than 10 years ago“, indicates the survey. Generally, the work concerns the insulation, the windows and the heating system.”In total, 94% of the accommodations are equipped with double or triple glazing. 93% of dwellings built before 1979 are double glazed … even though it did not become popular until the end of the 1970s“, details Ipsos. Also, do the homes have shutters on all the windows? This is the case for 8 out of 10 homes. 54% of them have roller shutters. With regard to security, the door entry remains “the flaw“conducive to theft and intrusion. If the insurance companies recommend installing three locking points, 4 out of 10 homes do not have as many. If it is impossible for the burglar to go through the door, he will then choose the window. Only a third of homes on the ground floor have windows fitted with bars or blackout. Another questionable subject, that of the digital divide, still relevant in France. Despite the massive deployment of optical fiber in the hexagon, 12% of respondents do not have Internet access. Among those over 60, this proportion represents more than a quarter of those surveyed. This is 3 times more than those under 59. In rural areas, 20% of homes have no connection. And among the 1,000 households surveyed, 24% have very low speed and 20% have very high speed. Finally, theaccessibility of buildings to the elderly and disabled still underdeveloped. Only 1 in 3 residential buildings has an elevator. But 1 in 5 inhabitants must climb stairs before reaching it. Thereby, “60% of French people are dissatisfied with the adaptation of their housing to disabled people“, specifies the survey.
* Survey carried out by IPSOS for the Qualitel association from May 23 to July 26, 2021. 75 trained investigators visited 1,000 housing units representative of the French housing stock (house / apartment, occupancy status and construction period). About a hundred criteria were evaluated by the investigators.
