New housing: a breath of fresh air after asphyxiation?

This dismal assessment of the upstream part of the sector, which is accompanied by a host of abandonments and withdrawals of operations as well as business failures and massive job losses, jeopardizes the prospects for future production. In fact, in 2024, the authorizations, which predict construction starts in 2025, recorded a new decline of more than 12%.

Past inaction and procrastination are being paid for dearly today, and the industry will need many years of convalescence to recover from this tsunami.

The improvement in financing conditions for buyers observed in recent months, however, is blowing a slight wind of optimism, especially since the government is no longer ignoring the need to act to support demand. Several of the measures in the 2025 Finance Act bear witness to this, particularly the reestablishment of the zero-rate new loan throughout the country and especially for individual homes.

The fact remains that the dynamic is fragile and the reconstruction project is colossal. The establishment of an incentive and sustainable status of private lessor is essential to support rental investment, which is now deserted by both institutions and individuals. It is also necessary to resolutely simplify the maze of rules, standards and procedures that slow down activity and discourage business. Finally, the measures included in the TRACE bill must be adopted to allow for greater pragmatism in the application of the ZAN.

For Grégory Monod, President of the Pôle Habitat FFB: "With 8 construction starts per 1.000 households, the current situation for new housing is similar to that which prevailed in France at the beginning of the 1950s! I therefore salute the action and tenacity of our Minister of Housing, Valérie Létard, for the recent adoption of provisions that are finally going in the right direction. But the crisis is not yet resolved, and we remain mobilized so that additional and lasting measures are taken in order to sustainably reverse the trend."

Illustrative image of the article via Depositphotos.com.