• In Rennes, 600 buildings were considered degraded or very degraded ten years ago, leading to a safeguard plan.

  • Since 2010, 232 buildings in the historic center have been restored or are in the process of being restored.

  • The city and its actors are trying to convince the owners to start work in order to avoid dilapidation and unsanitary housing.

The door isn't even locked. But come to think of it, who would want to enter? At 23 rue Saint-Georges, the half-timbered facade cuts a pretty good figure. What lies behind is much less glorious. Located in one of the two “critical” sectors of the historic center, this building is falling into ruins. Whose fault is it ? The lack of maintenance on the part of the owners who do not live there and rent accommodation bordering on unsanitary conditions to students who have no other choice. After months, sometimes years, of discussions, the city of Rennes and its developer Territoires Publics have managed to convince the owners to undertake work to the tune of 900,000 euros, 45% of which will be financed by the community and the National Agency. for home improvement (Anah).

A little over ten years after the launch of the first plan to safeguard its old center, Rennes has managed to rehabilitate 232 buildings, as presented Monday evening to the city council. The Pattier report published in 2008 estimated the number of “very degraded” buildings at 300, while 300 others were deemed to be “degraded”. At the time, some even dared to evoke a great collapse of the old center of the Breton capital. Rotten by the successive layers of floors, drowned by the DIY installation of bathrooms and abandoned by owners who often left far from here, the poor buildings are gradually being restored. “These are long and expensive projects. The owners must come to an agreement among themselves, explain the process, propose financing solutions. It's never easy ”,summarizes Mélanie Barchino.

The Public Territories project manager knows better than anyone the immense work of persuasion that must be carried out with the owners.

In a city center which has 66% of one-bedroom apartments and studios, the owner-inhabitants are barely more than 10%.

The others had often invested thirty or forty years ago to house their child, then a student.

Behind the beautiful facades, there are sometimes horrors that must be demolished.

“We had an apartment here that was 1.70 m wide,” continues Mélanie Barchino.

"Housing has been depreciated for a long time"

Instead of the 11 units, only three will remain. Difficult in these conditions to convince the owners to finance the work, they who had sometimes created rooms of 6 m² in attics or garages not really made for that. Faced with the most reluctant, the threat of a buyout by the community is often enough to convince the owners. “The work is certainly expensive, but it is accompanied. Especially since housing has been depreciated for a long time ”. The frames, floors, fire safety in order to ensure their safety, are thus taken over.

In rue Saint-Georges, the most damaged sector along with that of rue Saint-Michel and Penhoët, 80% of the buildings need to be treated.

But it is all the old center that must be watched.

“It is not unusual for buildings to show signs of fatigue when they are 300 or 400 years old.

But it is imperative to treat them, ”said the elected representative of the district center Didier Le Bougeant.

The latter evokes "a dozen procedures" of undignified housing per year, plus "a few orders of imminent danger".

Far from the situation of 2010, where the then mayor Daniel Delaveau signed orders every week.

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  • Lodging

  • Student housing

  • Town planning

  • Reindeer

  • Patrimony

  • Works

  • Bad housing

  • Unsanitary