Real Estate Taxation: The Liberal Shadow Budget Aims to Streamline the Market

Streamlining to Unlock Mobility

The idea is as radical as it is pragmatic: to restore flexibility to the market by tackling the fiscal blockages that hinder sales and purchases. The liberal counter-budget from GenerationLibre, founded by economist Gaspard Koenig, uniquely presents its proposals as ready-to-file amendments for a parliamentarian. Three flagship measures stand out, all centered on housing.
First proposal: extend the flat tax (PFU) to include rental income and real estate capital gains. The goal is twofold: to eliminate the reduction logic based on holding duration, which encourages households to keep their properties for tax reasons, and to make taxation transparent and neutral over time. By incorporating these incomes into the PFU, the think tank hopes to stimulate sales, particularly in high-demand areas where the shortage of available properties hinders mobility.
The second approach: allow counties to reduce transfer taxes. These « notary fees, » which can reach up to 8% of a property's price, are a significant barrier to moving and career changes. By enabling local councils to adjust these fees locally, GenerationLibre introduces a logic of territorial tax competition and adaptation to on-the-ground realities.

Rethinking Tax Incentives Instead of Increasing Aid

This alternative budget contrasts with traditional budgetary approaches. While the French Ministry of Finance multiplies exemptions and targeted tax breaks, GenerationLibre advocates for radical simplification and long-term fiscal stability. The think tank criticizes the « layering » logic of current policies, which complicates the market and discourages wealth management decisions. According to its authors, the current real estate tax system produces the opposite effect of the intended goal: it locks up the housing stock, hinders professional mobility, and worsens the housing shortage in major cities.
Expanding the single flat tax (PFU) to include rental income, if adopted, would unify capital taxation around a fixed and predictable rate, comparable to that on dividends or capital gains from securities. This measure aligns with a logic of economic neutrality: decisions to invest in stocks versus real estate should be driven by profitability and risk, not by tax considerations.
Decentralizing the transfer taxes would pave the way for genuine local financial autonomy. Some local authorities could, for instance, choose to temporarily reduce these taxes to attract active households or encourage a return to homeownership in rural areas.

An Ideological Response to a Structural Crisis

Beyond budgetary techniques, GenerationLibre presents a broader vision: refocusing the state on its essential missions and unleashing productive forces. The housing crisis serves as a symbol here: excessive regulations, administrative delays, imbalance between rights and duties, opaque taxation. By proposing a structural reform, this liberal think tank contrasts its « regulatory sobriety » with the accumulated complexity of the French model.
The liberal counter-budget's « housing » package currently has no legislative value, but it introduces proposals that can be immediately activated in parliamentary debate. Most importantly, it helps to refocus the debate on a simple idea: the best housing policy is the one that makes the market fluid.
At a time when new production is plummeting, transaction taxes are discouraging mobility, and property owners feel inadequately protected, this manifesto acts as an intellectual counter-model. It places legal security and tax predictability at the center of housing policy.