“This decision was not easy to make”, but faced with the crisis, “we are obliged to transform the company”, assures its CEO

The leading French promoter announced Thursday that it would cut 502 positions. These job cuts concern the promotion-construction division.

“It was not an easy decision to make”, assures Friday April 26 on franceinfo Véronique Bédague, CEO of Nexity, while the real estate developer announced the day before that it was going to cut 502 positions to deal with the deep construction crisis. The boss of Nexity justifies this job protection plan by mentioning “a cyclical crisis”, and in particular the increase in construction costs. Véronique Bédague thus maintains that in two years, the prices of work have increased by “+18%, following the war in Ukraine”.

Véronique Bédague ensures “forced to transform the company” in the face of hindsight “by 40% in two years” of “collective housing market. “It is perfectly normal that we adjust our production tool to the market we face”, she insists. In detail, the staff of the promotion-construction division are affected by this social plan, the cost of which is estimated at around 50 million euros. The CEO of Nexity ensures that “behind this job protection plan, there is a real business transformation.” She promises that once the sector “come out of the crisis, the market will be very different”, without providing details on the changes to be expected.

The boss of the first French real estate developer therefore warns of the consequences of her difficulties which lead to a “systemic crisis”. She explains, for example, that when a group like Nexity “build less housing, we offer fewer jobs to construction companies”. Véronique Bédague says she is convinced that a way out of the crisis is possible, but recalls that “the longer we wait, the more skills we destroy”, both in its sector and in construction. “We have to move quickly, we have to resolve this crisis very quickly.”

“Reworking the profitability of rental yield”

She therefore expects a lot from the drop in interest rates announced by the Banque de France. “The more rates fall, the better off we will be”, retorts Véronique Bédague. But above all, it invites the government to act. The CEO of Nexity therefore considers that “the sooner the government tackles this problem of the profitability of investment in housing, the sooner we will emerge from the crisis.” The CEO of Nexity criticizes the action taken so far by the government. She assures that at the end of the National Housing Refoundation Council last year, former Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne “said that from the next finance law”, the executive “would take steps to make investment in housing more attractive”. Gold, “This has not been done”, points out Véronique Bédague. However, she welcomes the posture of the new head of government Gabriel Attal who, “during his general policy statement, he said he would go after housing with his teeth”. The CEO of Nexity is therefore convinced that “the awareness is there”, but now she wants action.

While she welcomes the efforts made by banks to “support first-time buyers” via, for example, “the zero interest loan”, Véronique Bédague now pleads for “bringing investors back into the housing sector”. The boss of Nexity suggests that the executive should notably “rework the profitability of rental yield”of “working on taxation” pso that she is “equivalent on a dividend, on a bond coupon and on housing, which is not the case today”. “In housing, when you are an individual investor, you have income tax, a property tax (…) and all of this makes investment in housing very disadvantaged fiscally compared to other investments”she notes.