This is an unprecedented decline since 2020: construction craftsmen, particularly masons, saw their activity decline in the second quarter of 2023, by 0.5% over one year, Capeb, their professional organization, said on Thursday.
The year 2020, marked by the health crisis and confinement, saw activity plummet. Without counting this year, this is the first trend reversal since 2015.
Building craftsmen are subjected to new real estate crisis, their activity in this sector having fallen by 1.5%. Maintenance-improvement, the other branch of their activity, stagnated in the second quarter, despite the efforts of the public authorities to boost the energy renovation of buildings.
Masons on the front line
It is the masons who suffer the most, followed by electricians and carpenters-locksmiths.
This first semester is not a disappointment since we expected it, said the president of Capeb, Jean-Christophe Repon. New real estate is in crisis, caught between rising interest rates and inflation which are undermining the purchasing power of buyers, and rising construction costs, caused by the prices of materials and energy. , and the tightening of environmental standards.
THE number of business creations fell by 6.3% over one year while that of failures climbs by 48.3%, but these figures remain better than before the health crisis, underlined Capeb.
The situation is tough, but we can still, with a few common sense decisions, restore activity to the building industry, said Mr. Repon, calling on the executive. Capeb fears that the VAT rate reduced by 10% on the maintenance of housing over two years old and main residences will be abolished and is even calling for it to be lowered to a more advantageous level of 5.5%.
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