Faced with the great difficulties of the main guarantor of new houses, SMABTP comes to the support of CGI Bâtiment

The SMABTP group, co-owner of CGI Bâtiment, the main guarantor of house construction in France, plans to absorb it to try to save it, it announced Thursday February 22, confirming information from Challenges magazine.

CGI Bâtiment sells delivery guarantees to builders of new houses, a compulsory insurance which covers the client against the risks of non-performance of the work.

But with the 60% drop in two years in sales of individual homes and the failure of major players in the profession like Phénix, the sector is under pressure.

“With the support of the profession and all the shareholders”, the mutual company specializing in construction SMABTP therefore plans to gradually absorb the activity of CGI Bâtiment.

Subject to "agreement by the authorities", CGI Bâtiment clients will be offered the switch of their contract to SMABTP from March 1, while retaining the same terms.

The total absorption of CGI Bâtiment is then planned by the end of the year.

In addition to SMABTP, CGI Bâtiment has been owned for more than 30 years by the French Building Federation (FFB), Crédit Coopératif, MAAF and the Mutuelle des architectes français.

Builders of individual houses warned on Sunday of the “major risk” created by “the current difficulties” of CGI Bâtiment in the sector, asking its shareholders for its sustainable recapitalization.

In 2022, the bankruptcy of the builder of the emblematic Phénix houses, Geoxia, had weakened the entire ecosystem, forcing the guarantors, including CGI Bâtiment and Axa, to replace Geoxia and guarantee the delivery of the houses in progress.

According to the Pôle Habitat of the French Building Federation, sales of new houses (excluding housing developments) fell by almost 40% in 2023, after an already marked drop of 30,9%.

Like other professional federations, the Pôle Habitat reported on Thursday a “cataclysmic” year 2023 for new real estate, with even darker prospects for 2024.

Prime Minister Gabriel Attal has declared housing as one of the priorities of his action, although the housing world has until now rather criticized the executive for having aggravated the crisis with budget cuts.