Learning from France About Building Affordable, LIVABLE Cities and Towns

From a country of grim dormitory suburbs, the country is building a new generation of polycentric regions connected by trams -- and over 300,000 homes per year, many of them affordable.

ABOVE: Le Plessis-Robinson, a town within Paris' polycentric region, former dormitory suburb transformed into a mixed, walkable "15-minute city" -- with 35% affordable housing.

PARIS, FRANCE - A new report from our colleagues at Create Streets in London finds that France has quietly achieved something many countries are struggling to do: build large numbers of new homes -- while also creating affordable places people actually want to live in.

In recent years, France has been producing roughly 300,000 new homes per year, a level that many governments have set as a target but rarely achieve. What makes this achievement notable is not simply the scale of construction, but the character of the places being built. Rather than endless car-dependent suburbs or isolated housing subdivisions, many of these new homes are located in compact, walkable districts connected by modern tram systems and designed as complete neighborhoods.

The result is a pattern of development that offers an important lesson for cities around the world: it is possible to build large numbers of new homes — including affordable homes — while also improving the livability of urban environments.

ABOVE: The remarkably livable yet compact Le Plessis-Robinson, a suburb of Paris, featuring many affordable homes.

Housing production without sacrificing livability

Across much of the world, the debate about housing tends to become polarized. On one side are calls to build more homes to address affordability and shortages. On the other are concerns that rapid development will undermine the quality and character of communities.

France’s recent experience suggests that this trade-off is not inevitable.

The report, Towns and Trams: Learning from the French, examines several places where housing development has been integrated with transit investment and urban design. The projects studied — including new districts in Clamart near Paris, the reconstructed town of Le Plessis-Robinson, and tram-oriented growth in the city of Angers — illustrate how new housing can be delivered at scale while also producing attractive, walkable environments.

In each case the development model combines several key elements:

• medium-density housing rather than high-rise towers

• walkable streets and local services

• strong public spaces

• high-quality public transport

• integration of affordable and market housing

The resulting neighborhoods are not simply housing projects. They are functioning urban districts.

ABOVE: Le Plessis-Robinson was transformed from a grim "dormitory banlieue" (left) to a mixed, walkable, diverse town (right) - with integrated natural areas and livable public spaces.

Beyond the dormitory suburb

For much of the twentieth century, suburban growth across Europe and North America followed a familiar pattern: large housing estates built on the edges of cities, often disconnected from jobs and services and heavily dependent on the automobile.

France experienced this pattern as well. Many post-war suburbs consisted of large housing blocks surrounded by highways and parking lots — places widely criticized for their lack of social and urban vitality.

But over the past few decades, many French cities have taken a different approach.

Instead of expanding outward with low-density subdivisions, they have focused on building compact, mixed-use districts that function as local urban centers. Residents can walk to daily services such as grocery stores, schools, childcare facilities, and cafes. Streets are designed as social spaces rather than traffic corridors. Cars remain present, but they are less dominant.

These districts are often described today as “15-minute neighborhoods,” meaning that most daily needs can be reached within a short walk or bicycle ride.

The new Panorama district in Clamart, for example, was designed so that residents can reach shops, schools, and public spaces within minutes. Local leaders have described the concept as something closer to a “two-minute city.”

ABOVE: The Paris suburb of Clamart, well-connected to Paris and other towns with a tram, and moreover a complete community in its own right.

Trams as the backbone of growth

A central element in this model is the revival of the tram. France dismantled most of its historic tram networks after the Second World War, as many countries did. But beginning in the 1980s, cities began rebuilding them — not simply as transportation projects, but as tools for shaping urban development.

Today, more than two dozen French cities operate modern tram systems, and new lines continue to be built. These systems provide high-capacity, frequent transit connecting suburban districts to city centers and to other parts of the metropolitan region. Importantly, many new housing developments have been planned around these lines.

The relationship works both ways. Transit makes higher-density development possible, while compact development generates the ridership needed to support frequent service.

In the city of Angers, for example, new housing development has been concentrated along tram corridors, where planning policies encourage higher density and reduced parking requirements. The tram system becomes not just a transportation line but a framework organizing the growth of the city.

Affordable housing integrated into the city

Another striking feature of the French approach is the integration of affordable housing.

In many of the projects studied, social housing is not segregated into separate districts but incorporated into mixed developments alongside market housing. From the street, it is often impossible to distinguish between the two. This integration helps reduce the stigma historically associated with public housing and supports socially mixed neighborhoods.

Equally important, the urban form itself helps support affordability. Medium-density housing — typically apartment buildings of four to six stories — allows more homes to be built on available land without resorting to high-rise construction. When combined with transit access and walkable services, these neighborhoods become highly desirable places to live. Importantly, they are also less expensive places to live, because they do not require costly automobile-based travel for most trips.

ABOVE: "Social housing" -- subsidized affordable housing -- is mixed in with market-rate housing in Le PLessis-Robinson and other new French developments, eliminating the stigma of "projects."

Streets designed for people

One of the most noticeable features of the developments examined in the report is the character of the streets. In many cases, parking has been moved underground or consolidated into shared facilities, freeing surface space for trees, sidewalks, and public activity. Streets are narrower and calmer. Cars are present, but they do not dominate the environment.

This shift has multiple effects. It improves the public realm, encourages walking and cycling, and allows land to be used more efficiently for housing and public space. The result is a form of urban density that remains comfortable and human-scaled.

ABOVE: Cars are accommodated in Le Plessis-Robinson -- but they do not dominate, and there are many other enjoyable ways to get around.

A polycentric urban pattern

Although each neighborhood functions locally, the broader metropolitan structure is also important. These districts are not isolated communities. Instead they form nodes within larger metropolitan networks, connected by transit to other centers of employment, culture, and education. This creates what is known as a polycentric region — a system of multiple urban centers, rather than a single dominant core surrounded by dependent suburbs.

Residents may work or travel elsewhere in the region, but daily life can take place close to home.

This balance between local completeness and regional connectivity is one of the most important features of the French model.

Lessons for cities worldwide

The French experience does not provide an exact blueprint that can be copied everywhere. Each country has its own institutional systems, political structures, and planning traditions.

But several lessons appear broadly applicable.

First, housing supply and urban quality do not have to be in conflict. With thoughtful design and planning, it is possible to build large numbers of homes while also improving the livability of cities.

Second, transit and urban development work best when they are planned together, within polycentric regions. When new neighborhoods are structured around high-quality public transport, residents gain alternatives to car dependence. When the communities are planned as a network of complete communities, residents still have access to regional resources -- but they don't need to access them as frequently.

Third, medium-density housing in a mixed-use setting can provide a powerful balance between livability and efficiency. The so-called “missing middle” — apartment buildings, courtyard housing, and townhouses — allows cities to grow, and to accommodate diverse housing needs at a range of prices, without resorting to either sprawl or towers.

Finally, the experience shows the value of building complete neighborhoods rather than isolated housing estates. When housing, services, and public space are integrated from the start, new development becomes part of the urban fabric rather than an afterthought.

ABOVE: The market hall in Le Plessis-Robinson, offering fresh food and other goods, and one of the many mixed-use amenities within a short walk of all its residents.

Building cities for the future

Around the world, cities face growing pressure to provide more housing while also addressing economic opportunity, mobility needs, climate change threats, and quality of life.

France’s recent experience demonstrates that these challenges can be addressed together.

By combining compact urban form, strong public spaces, and high-quality transit, French cities are building new neighborhoods that are not only more affordable, but also more livable. Perhaps the most encouraging lesson is that this transformation is occurring not in isolated showcase projects, but at a significant scale — helping deliver hundreds of thousands of new homes each year.

For cities seeking ways to expand housing supply without sacrificing urban quality, that is a lesson worth studying closely.

You can download the Create Streets report here. A video report on the Create Streets team's tour is also here.

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We will examine the lessons of France -- and other countries around the world working to meet today's urban challenges with effective tools and strategies -- at the 63rd International Making Cities Livable (IMCL) conference in Riga and Jelgava, Latvia, July 6-10, 2026. For more information about the conference, please visit https://www.imcl.online/latvia.