The summer break opens on a brighter note for real estate players. And this applies to just about all markets.
Half-year results revealed no unpleasant surprises. What's more, most property companies and listed companies published indicators in line with their guidance, or even slightly ahead of their forecasts.
The publication this week of the half-yearly results for the two largest retail property companies - Unibail and Klépierre - confirms not only the resilience of a market segment that had been somewhat hastily buried, but also, and above all, the ability of the best performers to bounce back from successive crises, whether endogenous or exogenous.
The other good news comes from the residential sector, and more specifically from the new-build sector. From one month to the next, the number of building permits granted for housing rose by 7.2%, and cumulative authorizations for the last 12 months increased for the fourth consecutive month.
The number of building permits is thus beginning to climb back up after its vertiginous fall, which began in August 2022, following the rise in interest rates. It's a gentle climb, as the level of building permits smoothed over the year remains 24% below the peak of mid-2022, when it peaked at more than 530,000 new homes.
As real estate is a slow-moving business, it's still a little early for this to be reflected in the accounts of developers, most of whom are still posting substantial falls in business volumes. The majors seem to have cleaned up their project portfolios and are beginning to reap the first rewards of their new offerings, such as Altarea, which has recorded a 16% increase in reservations, even though the end of the Pinel scheme has scared off the last private investors.
These initial signs of improvement in the residential sector will need to be confirmed in the autumn, when a few clouds are already looming. Starting with the possibility of a rise in interest rates, which some bankers deem inevitable against a backdrop of unclear public finances and tensions surrounding customs duties.
One thing is certain. The real estate recovery - if there is one - will not be without its pitfalls.