New house construction: unfavorable figures in 2020
The federation of the housing sector, the FFB, has published figures which indicate a drop in the construction of new houses in 2020. Excluding housing estates, 114,900 sales were signed against 125,590 the previous year. This represents a decrease of 8.5%. But the biggest drop concerns houses in subdivisions. This time, the drop reached 22%. Even apartments are affected with a drop of 24.2% over one year.
The reasons for the drop in new home sales
This can be explained in different ways. Some project leaders have preferred to postpone the purchase of their house, the economic situation being particular and not very reassuring for a year. On the other hand, some regions are faced with a shortage of building land offers. Finally, in 2020, the High Financial Security Council, the HCSF, tightened the conditions for granting mortgage loans, and many households were excluded from credit.
Because of all these parameters, the will of the French to live in a house following the first confinement was not enough to trigger sales, especially in new buildings.
A not homogeneous situation in the territory
Some regions have experienced a much larger decline than others. The PACA region and Corsica are the most affected regions with a drop of 15.6% in 2020. They are followed by Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes with – 13.4%, the Center-Val de Loire region with – 11.6% and Occitanie with – 11%.
However, two regions are doing well, namely Brittany and Normandy, which show an increase of 0.8% and 2.5% respectively. This can be explained in particular by the attractiveness of these regions, and in particular Normandy, among Ile-de-France residents who are looking for a little space not far from Paris.
