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37 mins
Correspondent. Home, the end of a dream?
Correspondent. Home, the end of a dream? – (SPECIAL SUBJECT / FRANCE 2)
Why is it so difficult to get a mortgage? The sharp rise in interest rates, the materials crisis after the Covid-19 pandemic and the energy crisis due to the war in Ukraine have caused new housing prices to explode, precipitating the housing crisis.
A house and a small garden of their own is the dream of eight out of ten French people, a need for space reinforced since the pandemic. Barely two years ago, this ideal was still accessible to many citizens thanks to rock-bottom mortgage rates.
But in a few months, the situation has changed a lot with rates which are now close to 4% and real estate prices which are not falling enough. Why are banks no longer lending and who are the French people most affected? What are the conditions for accessing a real estate loan? Can you still become an owner today?
The end of the individual house model?
With this halt in credit production, an entire sector is panicking. Sales of single-family homes have fallen by 40% in one year. However, it was by having their first small house built that many young professionals succeeded in becoming owners.
In Gironde, builders find themselves with ghost housing estates, tarmaced, developed and ready to accommodate dozens of houses which no longer find buyers. On the craftsman side, the order books are no longer filling up. Is this the end of the model of the individual house, criticized for its ecological impact?
A report by Laura Orosemane, Jonas Juliette, Brice Gouronnec, Julien Pelletier, Maxime Cayot, Anne-Laure Marcaul, broadcast in “Special Envoy” on November 2, 2023.
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