Third year of crisis for new housing with fewer than 65.000 sales to individuals in 2025

According to provisional data published Friday by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, 64.867 new homes were reserved by individuals in 2025, a decrease of 6% year-on-year and a new low point for the market.

Institutional investors, mainly social landlords, have reserved 53.761 new homes, a figure down 7% compared to 2024.

In total, 118.628 new homes were sold by developers in 2025, representing a 6,5% year-on-year decrease. However, the ministry's statistics department no longer publishes comparisons with pre-crisis levels.

These results are "unfortunately very weak," Pascal Boulanger, president of the French Federation of Real Estate Developers (FPI), told AFP. "Since 2022, it's been getting worse and worse, and 2025 is the worst of the worst years."

The year was notably marked by the end of the Pinel tax scheme, which offered an advantage to individuals investing in housing intended for rental at capped rent.

The removal of this mechanism led to a collapse in sales to individual investors.

Within the French Federation of Property Developers (FPI), "rental investors accounted for around 61.000 homes sold" before the Pinel scheme was discontinued, recalls Pascal Boulanger. Now, "in 2025, that's 9.469, so a sevenfold decrease."

Even before this elimination, soaring construction costs and rising interest rates that began in 2022 had already significantly slowed household real estate projects, dealing a severe blow to the sector's activity.

New tax incentive

"All of this, I hope, is in the past and that thanks to the private landlord status that was promulgated this (Friday) morning, this infernal negative spiral will stop," says the FPI president, resolutely optimistic.

The state budget for 2026, the bulk of which was approved on Thursday by the Constitutional Council, was published in the Official Journal on Friday. It establishes a new mechanism designed to stimulate household investment in rental properties.

According to the government, this measure could allow the construction of nearly 50.000 additional homes each year, a volume equivalent to the investors lost since the end of the Pinel scheme, according to the FPI.

"We're coming out of a real catastrophe, we've lost a third of our employees. I think we've hit rock bottom," says Pascal Boulanger, who was already hoping for a rebound in 2025.

On the supply side, developers marketed 73.470 new homes to households in 2025, up 19% compared to 2024.

After a historically low level of new listings in 2024, professionals began to rebuild their supply. However, as reservations did not increase at the same pace, the stock of available housing reached 123.945 units at the end of 2025, 3,5% more than a year earlier.

"The sales period lengthened at the end of 2025 and one in five real estate development operations is withdrawn from the market," Pascal Boulanger points out to illustrate the persistent difficulties.

Furthermore, the number of building permits issued for housing increased by 15% in 2025, reaching 379.222 authorizations, according to a first estimate published at the end of January by the Ministry of Urban Affairs and Housing.

At the same time, construction actually started on 274.611 housing units last year.

This volume, however, remains far from the government's target of 400.000 new homes per year by 2030.

Illustrative image of the article via Depositphotos.com.