ABSTRACT
At the end of the Second World War, a majority of French households rented from private landlords, a very high proportion of their properties dating from before the First World War. Because of the acute housing shortage, rent controls were regarded as essential. But an active black market flourished and as people poured into the cities from the land, landlords subdivided units, responding to demand and doubling income, while official rents remained low. In spite of the black market, rent payments represented under one-fiftieth of family budgets and the French were renowned for not caring about their housing conditions (Quilliot and Guerrand 1989).
