The collapse of new housing continues with the fall in construction starts in 2023, “without hope of improvement” given the plunge in sales, deplored Tuesday the French Building Federation (FFB), which denounces a “political bankruptcy “.
80,000 fewer homes between 2022 and 2023 means billions of euros less turnover (…). The state, in VAT, has lost 1.7 billion euros and it is also 13,300 fewer jobs, declared its president Olivier Salleron during a press conference.
The estimated number of construction starts fell by 24.6% over 12 months and that of building permits by 23.4% over the same period, according to the latest figures published by the Minister of Ecological Transition.
We don’t know where it will stop, how the boss of the FFB, pointing to a housing policy without any planning, in the small week, which is dragging the building industry into recession.
Catastrophic picture, deplored Mr. Salleron, sales to individuals are almost halved compared to the last 16 years and this in all segments, individual or collective housing.
The construction of new non-residential buildings (hotels, shops, offices, administrative buildings) is also at its lowest.
Only improvement-maintenance, driven in particular by energy renovation, is doing well, even if a slowdown appeared at the end of 2023.
Welcoming the government’s decision to postpone until 2025 the refocusing of the MaPrimeRnov’ system on major renovations, Olivier Salleron estimated that its complexity had led to a 75% drop in its production in January and February 2024, compared to last year.
On the employment side, the FFB maintains its forecast of 90,000 jobs destroyed at the end of 2024 then 150,000 in mid-2025.
Even our craftsmen who made a few individual houses per year no longer do them, alerted Mr. Salleron. Building contractors have a suppressed, vexatious anger (…) which can be explosive. Some of the Federation have already taken street actions, he stressed.
The only good news is that material and energy costs are stabilizing and customer payment terms appear to be reducing.
Among the measures called for, the FFB wants the restoration of the zero-rate loan (PTZ) in force in 2023, a relaxation of credit rules, the replacement of the Pinel rental investment system due to disappear at the end of 2024, as well as the postponement from 2025 to 2028 of the application schedule for the RE2020 environmental regulations.