Housing crisis: don’t panic!

2023-05-04 10:00:00

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EDITORIAL. The real estate market is in the doldrums. This is no reason to give in to catastrophism in a country that is rather well off in this area.

Par Pierre Antoine Delhommais

What horizon for housing in France?
© Vincent Isore / MAXPPP / IP3 PRESS/MAXPPP

Published on 05/04/2023 at 10:00 a.m.

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Uno more! After the Covid, energy and inflation crises, after the political and social crisis of pension reform, here comes the housing crisis. It is no longer just the leaders of the Abbé-Pierre Foundation who talk about it, but the president of Medef, Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux. France will, according to him, “in the face of a disaster” and he urges the Head of State to make housing “the great national cause” of the end of his five-year term.

All indicators in the sector, it is true, have turned red. The number of housing starts fell to 376,200 in 2022, down 3.7% over one year but also 14% over five years. Obviously, the construction offer shock promised in 2017 by the candidate Emmanuel Macron has not taken place. Sales of maize…