New home reservations fall to a historic low in the 1st quarter

While the main organizations of the sector addressed yesterday, May 15, an open letter to the President of the Republic to call for emergency measures, the provisional figures for new housing published today confirm a catastrophic situation for developers.

With 19.487 housing units reserved, 41% less than a year earlier, marketing marks a fourth consecutive quarter of decline, and even settles below its level in the second quarter of 2020, in full containment.

Developers are suffering from a very unfavorable economic context, caught between rising construction costs and difficulties in accessing credit for buyers.

"It's a disaster," reacted to AFP Pascal Boulanger, president of the Federation of Real Estate Developers (FPI). "We are -41% on the 2022 figures which were already bad," he said, fearing serious consequences for businesses and employment.

"In a few weeks, you will have breakage very quickly. I'm starting to have companies calling me and saying 'help'", he added.

Listings, which represent the new offer of promoters, are also beginning to drop, with a drop of 9% in one quarter and 15% over one year.

As a result, the stock of new homes available for sale exceeds 123.000, rising steadily since the start of 2022.

"It's completely crazy, it means that we are out of order. We already have little supply, and the little we have in supply, we don't sell it...", said Pascal Boulanger.

The fall in reservations is as marked for apartments, the core business of developers, as for houses.

It concerns all types of territories, but is particularly vertiginous (-48%) in zone B1, corresponding to large agglomerations such as Bordeaux, Strasbourg, Rennes or Nantes, and on the outskirts of very tense cities such as Lyon and Lille.