Adding new housing to low-density residential neighbourhoods? A French case study on residents’ attitudes
This article looks at how the transformation of two old low-density residential neighbourhoods are perceived by the people living there. Both neighbourhoods are located in France, in the outskirts of Paris and Angers, and were surveyed using qualitative interviews. Our article first demonstrates that residents do not find it easy to envisage making changes to their homes or properties, whether it is to generate additional income, make room for other family members or better prepare for their requirements as they grow older. Changes of this nature in fact occur mainly during property or ownership transfers, in a context dominated by agents in the property land and housing market. The second part of the article shows that, when faced by changes, most residents of the neighbourhoods surveyed remain relatively passive and are unlikely to challenge proposed new frameworks if those frameworks respect local land use regulations. Yet such regulations rarely encourage major transformations and are in fact becoming increasingly conservative.