The French housing minister Christine Boutin, who would like to see a rise in the number of owner-occupiers in France, went to Madrid to seek inspiration from Spain and its 86% of owner-occupiers.

Seeing as president Sarkozy wants an owner-occupier country, I took the initiative to come to Spain, which seemed like a good example, declared the minister. In France we have 56% of tenants but also a rental housing stock that does not exist in Spain. In her opinion it is better to have a combination of both.

The problems encountered by both countries are very similar especially concerning access to housing for the young. Mrs Boutin is interested by some of the Spanish ideas, such as the attribution by a lottery mechanism of some newly-constructed protected housing (equivalent of social housing). This said she pointed out that the idea may be a little odd and that she was not planning on applying it in France.