We live with it, to the point of no longer really measuring what it brings us: the elevator equips a very significant proportion of our buildings, those in which we live or the relatives to whom we go to live, and those in which we work. It is undoubtedly the most remarkable technological progress applied to buildings after running water and electricity. We could also think that its deployment in residential and business real estate is such that there is no longer any reason to think about it. This is far from being the case. The Elevator Federation, which brings together some two hundred companies in France which manufacture, install and maintain elevators, regularly surveys the French to find out their views and expectations regarding the elevator. The union thus created a barometer with IPSOS BVA, regularly gauging the relationship of households with this equipment. A way of not being satisfied and of advancing this means of transport that has become familiar to residents.
The results of the last wave deserve attention. They confirm a certain number of convictions and sweep away others… One certainty: the elevator now occupies a major place in the housing equation. Much more than a simple improvement, it conditions the relationship we have with housing and even influences public policies.
We will not be surprised that 72% of French people use the elevator, the highest performance since the barometer existed, i.e. 2015. We also see what their usage habits are: do they use it systematically or do they still prefer to exercise when it comes to going up one or two floors only? This is a detail of the story, but it shows that the majority maintain their shape: only 22% borrow this equipment for a floor… From the 2nd floor, the proportion increases to 34% and it is 32% from the 3rd. Use is lower from the 4th and beyond because tall buildings are rarer. However, we know that 37% use it at work, 21% at home and 62% outside of these situations, for example to use market or non-market services in their everyday life. The user satisfaction rate reached 74%, a level never reached in previous waves, including a confidence index of 81% in maintenance companies to ensure their safety.
Thus, the elevator has become a decisive criterion in the purchase or rental of an apartment, with rates which continue to increase. To date, 4 out of 10 French people on a national average consider this equipment essential, and 62% in the capital region, whose assets are more made up of multi-storey, even high-rise, residential, commercial or tertiary buildings. Furthermore, while in 2030 almost a third of the French population will be 60 years and over, the elevator or its forms adapted to houses, elevators and freight elevators, are seen as essential in seniors’ housing.
Even more interesting are the indicators which show that the elevator is the subject of particular attention to maintain its condition or to modernize it. Certainly, it is a logical corollary of the attachment to the elevator: however, the survey shows a maturity of the heritage approach which is surprising. Households are aware that half of the stock is over 25 years old and 94% of users consider it urgent to replace the devices through the renovation of buildings. Intentional damage caused by incivility, observed by nearly 6 out of 10 French people, also accelerates obsolescence and the need for change or heavy repair. 80% of users consider that it would be beneficial if annual provisions were made compulsory in co-ownerships. 85% of respondents, co-owners or tenants in co-ownership, are of the opinion that elevators, for their installation if the building is not equipped (this is still the case for one in two buildings in our country) or for modernization, be integrated into the multi-year work plan ten-year period made compulsory by the ALUR law of 2014 in co-owned buildings.
Beyond these considerations which describe the bond of intimacy between the French and the elevator, this equipment conditions the success of several fundamental public policies. Choices relating to the treatment of aging: people of the fourth age will only be able to stay at home and avoid stays in specialized establishments or even permanent placement thanks to lifting equipment. reduced mobility at certain times in life, following accidents or during pregnancy, particularly pathological, the elevator will again save you from moving into temporary places, most often difficult to find. It will also be impossible to densify so as to no longer consume land without our buildings to be built or existing ones gaining height… and being systematically equipped with elevators. Not to mention the elevator’s contribution to ecological change: rapid movements are made with very controlled energy consumption, compared to the cost of lighting stairwells or increasingly common video surveillance devices. Finally, the valorization of collective and individual assets involves the elevator: we know what multiplier coefficient of the market value of an apartment brings the installation of an elevator in the building, depending on the floor where the property is located.
The future of housing is consubstantial with that of the elevator and its good maintenance, far from the superfluous or luxurious image that was associated with it in the past. Real estate professionals, trustees, developers, builders, renovators, institutional owners, social landlords must take the full measure of this and learn from it in asset management, never compromising on the equipment, its quality and the investments to be made for its maintenance.
Henry Buzy-Cazaux,
founding president of the Institute of Real Estate Services Management
