First, satisfaction. During his general policy statement before the National Assembly on January 30, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal spoke of the housing crisis. A signal that social housing and construction stakeholders, developers and local elected officials and the growing number of households desperately looking for an affordable roof over their heads have been watching for for eighteen months. “We will respond to this housing crisis by creating a supply shock”said the new head of government.
A formula taken up by the new Minister for Housing, Guillaume Kasbarian, 72 hours after his appointment. “On offer, on offer, on offer”he insisted on Monday February 12 on RTL. “From the offer” by pushing new construction, but also, by relaxing the energy performance diagnosis (DPE), said the minister. A new DPE calculation rule should indeed allow 140,000 homes of less than 40 square meters to escape the category of “thermal sieves” (labeled F or G) and therefore to the obligation of renovation. Their owners will thus be able to continue to rent them after the 1er January 2025. A track at lower costs.
The slogan of the “supply shock” has, however, cooled the housing sector, affected since the sudden rise in interest rates, from autumn 2022, by the collapse of transactions in old real estate, the fall reservations for new properties and historic tension on the rental market. “I said to myself, disappointed, that the Prime Minister had no idea how to use these words, when we know that the shock of supply is an incantation, brandished for six years, and when we see what a failure it has summer “declares Emmanuelle Cosse, president of the Social Union for Habitat, which brings together HLM organizations.
Very bad numbers
In September 2017, the new majority was only recently in place when the government already announced, in fact, a “supply shock” for housing construction, in accordance with the promise of the candidate in the presidential election, Emmanuel Macron. But since then, nothing has happened. Worse, the figures have rarely been so bad: in 2023, housing starts fell by 22% compared to 2022, to 287,000 units, a level “ close to the low points of 1992 and 1993 and 72,000 units below the historical average,” indicates the construction sector. As for building permits, they collapsed by 24%. “I haven’t seen the offer shock and I’m still waiting for it”summarizes, skeptically, Olivier Salleron, the president of the French Building Federation (FFB).
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