“New housing is sinking into a severe crisis” and in 2022 experienced its worst contraction since that of 2008, warns the housing division of the French Building Federation (FFB), which is calling for a “housing shield” to support the power of property purchase.
“Bad” figures and “more than worrying” prospects: while the “need for affordable housing continues to grow”, the new housing market lives in France a crisis “not seen since the subprime crisis in 2008”was alarmed Grégory Monod, president of the housing division of the FFB, during an annual report presented Thursday.
The 31% drop in gross sales of new homes in the diffuse sector (contrary to housing estates), which even plunged to 38% in the fourth quarter of 2022, constitutes “ the worst financial year in the last sixteen years “, Estimates the FFB housing cluster in its press release.
Grouped individual housing “collapsed by 22.2%, to 6,100 sales, the worst vintage of the last 22 years”, while sales of collective housing (buildings, apartments), with -14% including -30% in the last quarter“retreat to the level of 2020, marked by the confinements due to Covid-19”, he underlines.
An explosive cocktail between inflation and rising rates
All sectors combined, “71,000 new homes have been lost in the space of one year”, estimates this organization which brings together builders, developers, developers and renovators. After a continuous decline since 2018, new housing had returned to strong growth in 2021. But this was stopped dead by an “explosive cocktail”, according to the FFB Housing cluster: “continuous inflation of construction costs and land prices (… ), weakening of support systems for home ownership and buy-to-let investment, and rapid and sharp rise in interest rates. »
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Even if some materials are now experiencing “an increase that is much less dizzying, or even a decline like wood”, the sector is in a “quite unbreathable” situation, believes Grégory Monod, who calls for a “start”. The housing division of the FFB calls on the government to establish a “housing shield” including “the extension of the zero-rate loan” beyond the end of 2023, “its restoration to 40% without territorial discrimination” and the “raising of 25 % of transaction limits taken into account for its calculation. »
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He asks ” the introduction of a 15% tax credit on the first five loan installments which will be able to “compensate for the impact” of the 2020 environmental regulations, which came into force at the start of 2022 and which aims to decarbonize housing construction. The federation finally requests “the restoration of the Pinel device in its 2022 version”, while the incentive tax reduction provided for by law has been reduced for 2023 and must be reduced again in 2024.
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