In 2024, only 59,000 homes will be created in France, half as many as normal

In 2024, France created 59,000 new homes , half as many as two years earlier, a new illustration of the serious crisis shaking new real estate . Excluding the year of Covid , around 125,500 homes were put up for sale per year on average between 2017 and 2022.

In 2024, this figure will only reach 59,014, 29% less than the previous year and almost half as many as in 2022, according to data published Wednesday by the Ministry of Regional Planning.

Individuals reserved 67,906 new homes last year, 5% fewer than in 2023, an already disastrous year for new home production due to rising construction costs and interest rates that have blocked many households’ plans to buy a home. The number of reservations is nearly 40% lower than in 2022, and half the average level for 2017-2022.

"Everything is to be thrown away in 2024, it is the worst year in more than 50 years and the beginning of our statistics," reacted Pascal Boulanger, president of the Federation of real estate developers. "The crisis has fueled the crisis: since we were not selling, we did not produce new housing, so we did not buy land and we have fewer employees," he continued.

Optimistic for 2025, Pascal Boulanger is nevertheless worried about the restarting of "the machine" which could cause price increases: due to higher salaries "to bring back the 5,000 employees who left the profession" and overbidding on land for sale if all the developers start "all buying land again".

In the fourth quarter, the average price per square meter of new apartments marketed was 4,756 euros, a slight increase of 0.5% compared to the previous quarter.

The number of new homes marketed between October and December rebounded slightly by 6.4% compared to the previous quarter, to 14,335.

It was mainly apartments that were put up for sale in the last quarter (+8.1% over one quarter), while the number of houses marketed continued to slow down, by 15.5%. Housing reservations by individuals fell by 4.2% in the last quarter, compared to the previous one, to 17,122. It was mainly apartments that individuals reserved (16,331 housing units).

Regarding houses , 791 reservations were recorded in the last quarter, 8.9% less than in the previous three months. The number of houses reserved falls to a new low since at least 2019.

The stock of housing offered for sale, which reached a peak in mid-2023, is being absorbed very slowly: 117,472 homes were available in the last quarter, 3% less than in the previous three months. "We have plenty of stock because we no longer have any reservations, but if reservations resume at a normal speed, we have half as many offers as in a normal year," emphasizes Pascal Boulanger.

The measures included in the 2025 state budget could boost private housing purchases, according to the spokesperson for developers, even if he does not expect to "reach peaks in 2025". "It will take between two and three years to get the machine going again", warns Pascal Boulanger.

In the territory, the areas with the most strain on available housing (Paris, a large part of the Île-de-France, the Côte d'Azur and the border area with Switzerland) concentrated 50.7% of reservations and 47.2% of sales recorded in the fourth quarter. The other large urban areas with more than 250,000 inhabitants represented 40.4% of reservations and 39.4% of sales.