“The sector is blocked,” laments the CEO of Nexity

According to Véronique Bédague, “the banks want to lend again” and the Nexity company “is making a very significant effort on prices”.

The housing sector “is blocked”deplores Véronique Bédague, CEO of Nexity, on franceinfo Monday January 29. “With the rise in interest rates, the very sharp drop in real estate prices, almost 50% in two years”accommodation reservations fell‘”about 50%, transactions in the old 20%”. To emphasize how “all lights are red”the boss of the leading French real estate group adds that in “real estate agencies have twice as many rental requests and 20% fewer rental offers”.

Véronique Bédague also cites the figures communicated at the start of the year by the Social Union for Housing (USH): the number of households waiting for social housing reached 2.6 million in 2023, a record figure in increase of 7.5%, while the number of approvals is “at its worst level since 2005”.

“Leaving housing in the state it is in today is contributing to the blockage of society” because with this housing crisis, “the routes of the French are frozen”, warns the CEO of Nexity. She recalls that students “gave up school because they couldn’t find accommodation”that this has “obviously impacts on employment” and also on the birth rate while Emmanuel Macron announced measures for the “demographic rearmament of France”. “The ability to have larger housing is an absolutely determining factor in our desire or ability to have children”defends Véronique Bédague.

Time to return to the real estate market

She assures that “the entire sector is trying to get its act together to give the French the idea that it is undoubtedly the time to return to the real estate market”. According to Véronique Bédague, “banks want to lend again” and the Nexity company “made a very significant effort on prices”. The CEO of the leading French real estate group also calls “to take two steps back, and look at the return on investment in housing globally”. For Véronique Bédague it’s an investment “extremely taxed”.

Without these measures, “this will start to hit hard for construction companies”. She emphasizes that “the market has collapsed by around 40 to 50% in two years”. Olivier Salleron, president of the French Building Federation, also warns: “We have already lost 8,000 employees at the end of 2023 and we predict a recession of 5% in 2024”, he declared on Monday. It predicts 300,000 job losses in 2025.