‘Job destruction’, ‘housing shortage’: open letter from real estate professionals to Macron

“Housing alarm: the French urgently need action! This is how representatives of the real estate and construction sector titled their open letter, published on Monday morning exclusively in Le Parisien Today in France and addressed directly to Emmanuel Macron.

While the National Reconstruction Council, wanted by Emmanuel Macron and involved in housing construction, has postponed its conclusions that were expected last week, professionals in the sector are again sounding the alarm. Because housing is bad. Very bad and production has never been as low as sales.

While this council brought together 200 experts for six months, no rescheduling date has been set. “But we read that it is possible to organize another “conference of parties”! No more time for observation, procrastination, or hesitation. When will the state take a real measure of the risk of the economic, social and social bomb represented by the “power to live” crisis faced by our fellow citizens? “, challenge the signatories.

About twenty proposals were expected from this National Recovery Council dedicated to the housing sector. They could, however, take place before the end of the month, but construction experts remind the President of the Republic “that there will be no full employment if the mobility of workers is hindered by the impossibility of housing.”

Destruction of 150,000 jobs

“Do we still need to remember that housing is a powerful engine of our economy and that, without strong and fast solutions, its termination will lead to the destruction of more than 150,000 jobs in the coming months, as well as a blatant and obvious housing shortage?, as well as worsening the living conditions of the French because of the lack of affordable supply? This deficit will also affect the construction of social housing, of which 54% is carried out by developers, ”they want to warn.

A sector whose deterioration has accelerated due to access to credit, which has deteriorated significantly in eighteen months, rising construction costs and the reluctance of mayors to issue building permits. Sector leaders also recall their important role in the ecological transition, “with the application of the 2020 environmental regulations in new buildings, undoubtedly the most demanding in the world, a clear commitment to the sobriety of the earth with its component that recycles soils that are already artificial, or even the fight against obsolescence buildings by changing their use.

Therefore, they call for “a necessary electric shock with immediate and effective measures to prevent this crisis from further escalating.” To do this, they recommend activating the “community support lever, resuming housing supply and, in addition to emergency-related government funding, we need banking solutions.”

Before concluding: “Is investing in real estate hell or heaven? Now we are looking not for another consultation, but for a clear and ambitious presidential will, as well as quantitative measures, a fast implementation timetable and financial resources adapted to the challenges.”

And threaten to “decide to make the climate and sustainability law calendar more flexible, in particular to make it compatible with co-ownership restrictions, on the fear that the private rental fund will suffer big losses.”

List of signers: Olivier Salleron, President of the French Building Federation (FFB), Loïc Cantin, President of the National Real Estate Federation (FNAIM), Pascal Boulanger, President of the French Property Developers Federation (FPI), Gregory Monod, President of Pôle Habitat FFB, Yannick Bordet, President of the Procivis Network and Daniel Dubrac , president of the first professional union of real estate managers (UNIS).