• To limit the impact of inflation on SMEs and households, the Commercial Rent Index (ILC) and the Rent Reference Index (IRL) had been capped at +3.5% maximum in 2022.
  • This device is supposed to stop in June. However, according to INSEE forecasts, the increase in ILC could reach 6% if it is no longer capped.
  • Untenable in a context of crisis and inflation, warn small traders, who are therefore asking for an extension of the capping device until the first quarter of 2024.

Operation rescue of small businesses in danger. Requested "urgently" by the association Bordeaux mon commerce two months ago, the deputy Renaissance Thomas Cazenave brought before the National Assembly, last week, a bill to extend the cap on the increase in rents for traders and households.

The proposal was overwhelmingly passed by 259 votes to 93, but could be defeated this week in the Senate. This Monday morning, the deputy of the first constituency of the Gironde, surrounded by several representatives of the world of commerce in Bordeaux, has therefore sounded the general mobilization to save this measure, even if it is the Assembly that will have the last word anyway.

To limit the impact of inflation on SMEs and households, the Commercial Rent Index (ILC) and the Rent Reference Index (IRL) had been capped at +3.5% maximum in 2022. This device is supposed to stop in June. However, according to INSEE forecasts, the increase in ILC could reach 6% if it is no longer capped. Untenable, warn small traders, who are therefore asking for an extension of the device until the first quarter of 2024.

"It's been five years since we did our job serenely"

"Rents are an important item in our expenses, especially in large cities," insists Bernadette Hirsch, a Bordeaux shopkeeper and president of the national clothing federation in Nouvelle-Aquitaine. This can represent up to 20% of our expenses, and at the same time we have less and less prospects on our turnover, so anything that can give us a little air to support inflation is welcome. »



Georges Simon, another Bordeaux shopkeeper and president of the Bordeaux mon commerce association, recalls for his part "that between the yellow vests and Covid-19, we have suffered the double Kiss Cool effect, not to mention that we are entering a period where we must start repaying PGE [loans guaranteed by the State]." "It's already been five years since we did our job serenely, and the difficulties are still ahead of us," abounds Bernadette Hirsch.

"If we have an increase in our expenses, we are heading for disaster"

In this context, "if all of a sudden we found ourselves with additional charges on rents that can represent several thousand euros per year, or even tens of thousands of euros, there is a real risk that the economic model will no longer hold," warns Georges Simon, who points out that "in a large number of streets, We're starting to have vacancies."

According to Bernadette Hirsch, the ready-to-wear sector, which is undergoing major transformations in addition to the crisis and inflation with the rise of online and second-hand commerce, is particularly exposed. At the national level, ready-to-wear stores experienced a decline of 10.3% in May, 15% regionally, according to figures from the clothing federation. "If we have too high an increase in our rents, we are heading for disaster," says the regional representative of the sector.

"A project of balance", defends Thomas Cazenave

The Bordeaux mon commerce association notes for its part that this decline in turnover is "generalized" to all sectors in the Gironde capital. And even if the city remains "attractive", Georges Simon acknowledges, "in Bordeaux, rents are often calculated at the maximum of the maximum, and leave no room for the slightest variation. The slightest air hole, and that's the crash."

MP Thomas Cazenave stresses that he did not want the rent freeze, preferring to defend "a project of balance" that also preserves landlords. And above all to avoid censure by the Constitutional Council. "We play it safe by preferring to extend a device that has worked."

  • Economy
  • Commerce
  • Rent
  • Inflation
  • Crisis
  • Bordeaux
  • Gironde
  • Aquitaine
  • New Aquitaine