Real estate professionals, a little less pessimistic, still remain in a state of expectation.

In the context of an ongoing crisis, apprehension is still high, but is decreasing slightly. Thus, in 2025, 44% of professionals declare themselves pessimistic about the future (compared to 52% in 2024), while 33% prefer not to express an opinion due to too many uncertainties (vs. 25% in 2024).

At the top of their concerns are:

• Simplification of standards to 65%:
  • A long-standing request from the entire sector, to stop the complications, delays and even project shutdowns generated by the accumulation of regulations;
• Housing taxation at 64% and the evolution of rental investment at 61% (vs. 75% in 2024):
  • Two closely linked concerns which reflect both the doubts of professionals regarding the ability of public authorities to revitalize a declining appetite for property, and the importance of the mission on the status of the private lessor;
• Insurance protection for professionals against climatic hazards (61%):
  • Another cause for concern is the growing impact of, for example, heavy rain and flooding on the smooth running of construction sites, and therefore the cost of extending their duration or losing materials;
• The evolution of sales in new construction at 55%:
  • With the end of the PINEL+ scheme, which has not been replaced, and demographic change, this concern may concern both construction aid and demand; the question arises in particular regarding the size of the housing offered in the face of new family patterns (increase in single-parent families and single seniors, decrease in large families, etc.);
• The evolution of building permits at 54%:
  • With 18 months to go before the municipal elections, the profession is concerned to see mayors putting the brakes on construction projects.

However, some concerns continue to grow:

• Energy sobriety, rising from 24% of concern in 2024 to 34% in 2025, attests to the difficulty, in a context of crisis, of reaching the 2025 thresholds of RE2020 at reasonable prices for new buildings and the renovation of all old buildings;
• The fight against vacancy, increasing from 33% in 2024 to 43% in 2025, highlights the tens of thousands of G-classified dwellings, now prohibited from renting and which many owners prefer to keep empty, or even furnished tourist accommodation which remains unoccupied due to the possible limitation on the number of rental days;
• The fight against degraded co-ownerships, increasing from 43% in 2024 to 49% in 2025, reflects the uncertainties generated by the degraded housing law of April 2024, but which could find solutions in the two decrees recently adopted on large degraded co-ownerships.

Finally, among the subjects on which professionals are most confident:

• The digitalization of practices and BIM, at 34%, which demonstrate a takeover and appropriation by the sector, very promising in the perspective of AI;
• Adaptation to climate change (31%), the massification of energy renovation (30%), low-carbon construction (30%) and the circular economy (30%) suggest that environmental transition issues now seem integrated, even if they are not yet resolved.

The measures they expect as a priority from the public authorities are:

• Simplification and stability (62%): in the current context and faced with the ever-increasing administrative complexity of project management, professionals are calling more than ever for regulatory simplification and greater clarity regarding the housing responsibilities of local authorities (38%).
• Residential pathway recovery measures to boost the market:
  • Assistance for accessing property in existing properties (37%)
  • Assistance with access to new property (34%)
  • Strengthening support systems for new construction (24%)
• Support measures to address the climate challenge that help finance the transformation of the profession and the paradigm shift:
  • Strengthening support systems for energy renovation to 49%
  • Climate change mitigation measures (low-carbon support, aid for adapting buildings) at 37%.

The appointment of Valérie Létard, which has won the support of the entire profession, and the first measures in favor of housing included by her in the 2025 Budget have undeniably restored confidence in the development and construction ecosystem. However, the specter of the dissolution of the government, still regularly raised, and the completion of the various projects currently underway (mission on the status of private landlords, draft laws on the simplification of urban planning law, energy renovation, land price control, the perpetuation of rent control, etc.) do not allow us to confidently predict a rapid rebound in construction. All the more so since the ecosystem faces a major challenge, that of rethinking and rebuilding the city in light of new environmental and energy requirements that are now unavoidable.

* Exclusive survey carried out in May 2025, by questionnaire, 125 respondents.

Illustrative image of the article via Depositphotos.com.