The French government has just issued a decree extending the validity of building permits issued between January 1, 2021 and May 28, 2024. The period of validity of building permits has thus been automatically extended to five years.
The decree published this week is intended to facilitate the resumption of construction work, particularly housing production, which has been hampered by the crisis. However, all stakeholders must agree on the new financial conditions for launching operations.
" A simple, inexpensive, democratic and effective scheme", commented Olivier Colonna d'Istria, former head of Socfim and still Chairman of IFPImm, on LinkedIn. All the things we've failed to do for years.
The question is whether this is a lifeline for professionals, or simply a small gesture to avoid putting their heads under even more water.
Because the new housing sector is still in the doldrums. Although building permits rose slightly in April, by 12%, we're starting from scratch: 34,000 housing units authorized in one month. Ten thousand fewer housing starts. Less than 300,000 housing units built in one year.
The Fédération des promoteurs immobiliers (FPI) sees no recovery on the horizon, noting a further erosion in sales in the 1st quarter: fewer than 13,000 sales to individuals. Fewer than 6,000 to institutional investors. As for private investors, they have been absent since the end of the Pinel scheme. Developers are trying, as best they can, to replace it with LLI schemes.
In short, the production chain has virtually ground to a halt, and this is disrupting the entire residential career of the French, even as the first signs of recovery are appearing in existing housing.
The good news is that the government has changed its attitude, understanding a little too late the damage that a policy of ostracizing real estate can do, particularly to public finances.
But it's not enough. The housing issue is systematically forgotten when Emmanuel Macron talks about his economic policy. And it's hard to see how, here, a small law on the conversion of office space, or there, a tax status for private landlords, could sustainably and powerfully get the economy moving again.
In Germany, the new Chancellor reserved one of his first speeches for the building industry federation, a "key industry" Friedrich Merz acknowledges. Across the Rhine, the crisis is just as severe, with a 15% drop in new housing construction. The new coalition intends to revive production with "a salvo of measures in the areas of investment, tax relief and cutting red tape".
We obviously have the same problems. Not all with the same urgency.