Construction industry calls for planning policy to build 448.000 new homes per year

The French Building Federation (FFB) called on Thursday, October 16, for a housing planning policy and estimated the need for new housing at 448.000 per year until 2035, based on a study by the Ministry of Regional Planning.

This study by the Ministry's Data and Statistical Studies Service (SDES), eagerly awaited by the sector and published in June, takes into account the increase in the number of French households, the extent of poor housing, the evolution of the number of second homes and vacant housing and the conversion of existing housing to assess the need for new primary residences for the coming decades.

According to the "central" scenario, the number of households will increase significantly by 2030 before beginning to stabilize. This results in a need for 208.000 new primary residences each year between 2020 and 2030, followed by 194.000 to be created by 2050.

Another "low" scenario predicts a need for 177.000 new primary residences per year between 2020 and 2030, and the "high" scenario for 242.000.

However, the SDES did not venture to estimate the number of new constructions required.

The French Building Federation has taken charge of this, starting from the high scenario, and estimates that 448.000 new homes would need to be built per year between 2026 and 2035 and a total of 8,8 million by 2050.

The number of households in 2022 already exceeds the SDES estimates and 260.000 housing units have been started in 2024, "so we are already behind schedule," said Philippe Servalli, president of the FFB's economic commission.

At a conference organized Thursday by the FFB, he called for "a real housing policy." For Olivier Salleron, president of the FFB, "planning" is even "essential."

"The housing market is not meeting all needs; it is stalled and public action is needed to improve it," said Olivier Aguer, Deputy Director of Housing and Construction Statistics at the Ministry of Regional Planning.

Some indicators depend on national policy, such as the transformation of vacant housing into primary residences, the speed of the reduction of poor housing, reindustrialization, taking into account climate change, or even the aging of the population.

For Pierre Madec, an economist at the French Economic Observatory (OFCE), a housing specialist, "we must first consider the attractiveness of territories before considering housing needs," in order to "recreate a territorial balance" between very attractive but too expensive metropolises for part of the population and areas that are currently less attractive.

Illustrative image of the article via Depositphotos.com.