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Real estate: are balconies dangerous for the French?
Real estate: are balconies dangerous for the French?
(France 2)
In Antibes, in the Alpes-Maritimes, the seven balconies of a building collapsed on Sunday April 14. An incident which raises questions about the fragility and maintenance of French real estate.
They are often seen as attractive assets, but balconies can sometimes represent a risk. According to a national report, in France, one balcony collapses every month. Last January, near Saint Jean-de-Luz (Pyrénées-Atlantiques), three young men were injured when they fell 7 meters from their balcony. In 2023, the tenant of an apartment near Amiens (Somme) suffered the same fate. A month earlier, a couple in their sixties were seriously injured in Paris in a similar accident. In 2016, in Angers (Maine-et-Loire), four people died and 14 were injured after a balcony came loose.
Sealing defects
France would have 15 million balconies. According to professionals in the sector, 1% to 2% of them have stability problems. Their condition is often weakened by waterproofing defects. Design offices can analyze the quality of the steel in the concrete that makes up the balconies. The authorities recommend not having heavy objects, not massing on a balcony and reporting any cracks or anomalies.
