Land and Housing

Residential mobility in cross-border areas causing tensions

New inequalities emerging with the growth in daily cross-border mobility are contributing to the creation of social tensions. In addition to the rise in property prices, border territories are also marked by massive daily congestion on major traffic routes, rises in the cost of services and tensions between cross-border workers and non-commuting workers.

Daily cross-border mobility is contributing to the creation of a “dormitory town” phenomenon, a term used to describe communities in which the residents only come home at night and therefore participate very little in local life. The speed of construction of new buildings within French border communities is leading to fears among original inhabitants of seeing the rural character of their communities disappear. For example, the commune of Viry in the Greater Geneva area has seen an exceptional rise in its population – between 2010 and 2015, it grew 36.34%. Driven by the cross-border dynamics, the Haute-Savoie department has seen the highest demographic growth of all departments in mainland France (on average +1.5% per year between 2006 and 2016).

Population growth in border areas represents financial burden for local authorities, linked to the need for new investment in public infrastructure. Various compensatory measures are being taken by border communities, notably in proximity to Luxembourg – for example the German municipality of Perl has introduced differentiated pricing of public lands for local residents (82.50 €/m2) and non-locals (107.50 €/m2). Border municipalities on the French side are demanding the introduction of similar measures.