Housing: for developers, the French deserve better than a mea culpa

More than a year later, the latest figures from the FPI Observatory show the futility of this strategy and confirm the FPI's forecasts made at the time: since new housing prices are technical, constrained by standards, taxation and the scarcity of building permits, they cannot fall. In reality, they have been almost stable over the last 5 quarters.

The market correction is based on volumes and not on prices. Retail sales are collapsing (-22,5%), barely cushioned by the increase in bulk sales (+24,6%). This corroborates the federation's thesis that prices will not fall. The market is atrophying.

Worse, developers are no longer able to market their homes, are no longer launching new operations, and, more recently, are withdrawing operations that were currently being marketed. In the second quarter of 2024, nearly one in four homes was withdrawn from sale.

Crisis fuels crisis. Buyers, when they return, will face a dramatic shortage of housing. The crisis we are experiencing will be here to stay.

The future government, if it does not want to repeat the same mistakes, must absolutely listen to real estate developers.

For Pascal Boulanger, President of FPI France: "I thank the President of the Republic and Bruno Le Maire for their respective mea culpas. They acknowledged, unfortunately too late, that they had not taken sufficient account of the housing crisis affecting many French people. And I strongly implore the Prime Minister, whose name is not known at the time of writing this press release, to absolutely not repeat the same mistakes by not taking the necessary measures to respond to the crisis. We must resolutely commit to immediate action. I am ready for a frank and effective discussion rather than receiving, in a few months, a new mea culpa."

Illustrative image of the article via Depositphotos.com.