Real Estate in 18th Century Paris. A Rental Market[L’immobilier parisien au XVIIIe siècle. Un marché locatif]

Urban real estate markets are generally analysed using selling prices. However, the extraordinary concentration of ownership in major cities in 17th and 18th century Europe indicates that rental transactions were in fact what drove the housing market trend. Most Parisians were tenants (nearly 90-95 %): buildings were a source of income, even more than a capital investment. This is so clear that real estate appraisals were usually made using the denier. This simple method of multiplying the income by a predetermined factor (usually 20) could be used by everyone, from the craftsman to the architect. By focusing on rents to explain trends in the housing market, we can cast light on phenomena that are less obvious than the law of supply and demand in a context of residential competition. Rising rents in the 18th century in Paris were thus attributable to the proliferation of shops, to the entrenchment of income-based taxation, and to the central role of the primary tenant. The latter was actually a real estate entrepreneur, competing with landowners to capture the land rent.