The number of building permits continued to decrease in November with 372,500 new housing units authorized over one year, a drop over 12 months of 25.5%, according to provisional figures from the Ministry of Ecological Transition published on Friday.
In November 2023, housing authorizations decrease and stand at 30,400 (-1% compared to October).
In total, from December 2022 to November 2023, 372,500 housing units were authorized for construction, i.e. 127,300 fewer than in the previous twelve months (-25.5%) and 19.1% less than in the twelve months preceding the health crisis (March 2019 February 2020), details the minister.
The estimated number of construction sites started, which traditionally follows that of permits by a few months, would be down with 294,700 construction starts over 12 months, a drop of 19.6%.
The reduction in authorizations concerns all types of housing: pure individual (-31.7%), individual group including subdivisions (-25.1%), and collective (-24.8%).
New real estate is experiencing both a sharp drop in buyers’ purchasing power and an increase in construction costs.
The rapid rise in interest rates has excluded many buyers from the market, particularly first-time home buyers, whose income is also being eroded by inflation.
On the side of developers and builders, successive global crises (pandemic, war in Ukraine, etc.) have caused the costs of construction materials to soar, and the tightening of environmental regulations on new projects adds further cost to operations. .
The developers also point to a reluctance, according to them, on the part of mayors to grant permits, under pressure from administrators who are reluctant to accept new construction.