The drop in housing sales forced 887 real estate agencies to close in 2023, according to a study. Professionals in the sector expect an even more complicated year in 2024.
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More and more real estate agencies are going out of business. According to a study by the Altarès firm, 887 agencies were placed in liquidation or receivership last year. A jump of 116% compared to 2022. A record figure since the housing crisis in 2009, a consequence of the drop in housing sales, caused by inflation and soaring interest rates.
In recent months, there has been a succession of closures among independents and also, sometimes, among large groups. “Today, we have seven agencies that have closed since October”regrets Stéphane Fritz, president of Guy Hoquet Immobilier.
The year 2024 promises to be complicated
At issue: average real estate loan rates which still remain above 4% over 20 years and inflation which does not help the French to launch into real estate projects. As we know, sales have fallen sharply recently, and in particular -19% of transactions for the group in 2023.
Agencies that have gone out of business often have the same profile: “Agencies that were just starting out, small agencies that only do transactions and all those who took out a loan guaranteed by the State during Covid in 2021 and who now have to repay it…”underlines Stéphane Fritz.
The manager wants to put things into perspective and assures that the overall number of failures only represents barely 3% of real estate agencies in France. But these 887 closures could well be just the beginning, explains Olivier Princival, president of FNAIM Grand Paris: “We think that this figure will almost double in the year 2024. Indeed, we will lose jobs, we will have a lot of withdrawals of sales forces and, as a result, stores which will become empty…” The manager calls for rapid measures from the public authorities to reverse the trend, without really believing in it at the moment.