Par
Stéphanie Hourdeau
Published on
Jan 5, 2025 at 6:20 a.m.
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The beautiful year 2022 seems a long way off, with its record sales and housing production! Building land, constructions, real estate transactions… Everything is down in the Vendée region. Et 2025 remains uncertain due to government instability which is freezing the measures envisaged to revive the sector in crisis. But let's first come back to the state of affairs.
Falling production of building land
2015. This is the number of plots of land ready to build on in subdivision which were produced in 2023 in Vendée. Practically 1,000 fewer than in 2022. That is a 37% drop in the number of authorized batches. This production was not homogeneous across the territory. The sectors of Mortagne, Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie, Vendée Grand Littoral and Les Sables-d'Olonne concentrated this production. Between them, they represented 47% of the land produced in 2023.
The cold shower is near Saint-Fulgent, the Yonnais agglomeration, Vie et Boulogne and Les Achards. These four intermunicipalities have suffered an 80% drop in authorized lots compared to 2022.
If we add the stocks from the previous year still for sale, we are at 3,389 lots to be developed in 2023. A figure that has been falling for six years in a row.
Plots that continue to melt
The decline does not only concern the number of building lots. The surface area of land for construction also continues to fall. Because of the new town planning rules which push us to fight against the artificialization of land, and therefore to densify as much as possible, and the price per square meter, which is also experiencing an upward trend. All this therefore leads to a reduction in plots.
In ten years, the median surface area has lost 13%. It went from 486 m2 in 2014 at 423 m2 in 2024. Note, however, disparities depending on the sector of these plots. We will still find land of more than 800 m2 in the Châtaigneraie region or in the Sèvre and Autise sectors. Everywhere else, we are rather below 500 m2. The smallest ones are on islands like Noirmoutier (351 m2). Around La Roche Agglo and Les Sables, the median surface area is 450 m2400 m2 for Challans-Gois.
Land sales down
After a recovery in sales in 2022 which had reached a record, the number of transactions involving subdivision land fell by 33% in 2023 with 1,449 sales. The territories which benefited the most from these sales are the countries of Challans, Montaigu, Saint-Gilles and Océan Marais de Mont.
This drop can be explained by the increase in interest rates which slowed the market and the increase in the cost of materials for new construction. “We also see old land in housing estates that are no longer attractive, like in South Vendée. They no longer meet expectations. The trend among households is to move towards diffused products,” notes Didier Le Bras, director of Adile de Vendée. So much land that remains on the backs of communities.
1,428 other lands, in diffuse (excluding subdivision) are also to be included in these 2023 transactions. Transactions which are found more on the coast and the south of the department. “These are garden funds, detachments of plots that have become too large and which make it possible to sell better in order to be able to buy back,” analyzes the director.
The quest for small plots
Also a new phenomenon according to the director of Adile, the race for small plots.
Before, it was the most beautiful or large plots of land that went first. Today, it is the smallest ones that are coveted. This is explained by the cost of land and construction which has increased. Buyers then look for smaller plots to be able to include the house on it and everything fits within their budget.
We already knew that the coastline and its price of land per m2 were not for all budgets. But this observation now also affects the Yonnais center. The median price per m2 reaches €118 in 2023 (compared to €84 in 2014). If the center of Yonnais is still far from the prices charged in Noirmoutier (€400 per m2or ten times the price in Pouzauges!), it exceeds the €100 per m mark2. La Roche agglo arrives at a median price of €152 per m2. The northern bocage still remains affordable.
Construction at half mast
The housing construction collapsed by 30% throughout France, both in individual homes and in collective housing. Apart from Maine-et-Loire, all the departments of Pays de la Loire note a drop in the number of construction starts between August 2023 and July 2024.
In Vendée, the drop is 36%. 3,787 housing units have been started. There are thus 1,507 fewer houses launched compared to the previous year and a drop of 687 collective housing units, representing an overall drop of 2,140 starts.
Many territories are affected by this fall: South Vendée littoral shows a decline of 58%, Terres de Montaigu is at -54% and Vendée Grand Littoral at -52%. The towns of La Roche and Sables-d'Olonne are not spared, particularly in terms of collective construction starts. La Roche sees a decline of 92% in the collective (-325 housing units) and Les Sables are at -78% (-428).
Although individual construction remains predominant, representing 70% of construction starts, this proportion continues to decline over the years in favor of collective housing. The production of collectives, previously confined to the coast and La Roche-sur-Yon Agglomération, is developing in other territories driven by the individual market, such as the Pays des Herbiers, Chantonnay or Challans-Gois. . “Over the last three years, Vendée has gone from 6,398 construction starts to 3,787 in 2023. It’s quite violent,” calculates the director of Adile who sees, in addition to the slowdown in construction, the consequences behind “for all trades, it risks being cruel for all these companies which only do new and which are not positioned on renovation”, predicts the director. “If there is no recovery in 2025, businesses will not recover. »
Building authorizations also falling
The number of building permits follows this downward trend. With 4,636 authorizations, Vendée recorded 1,851 fewer authorized housing units over the period August 2023-July 2024 compared to the previous period. Only La Châtaigneraie and Fontenay note an increase. However, a resumption of collective projects seems to be beginning in 2024, particularly in the Herbiers, Chantonnay and Fontenay sectors, “intermediate towns which are beginning to interest large national developers who can no longer go to the big cities because the markets are complete in collectives, but who need to produce because they are big. »
The impact of PTZ on the Vendée markets
Despite its 9th national rank in terms of zero-interest loans (PTZ) issued in 2023, Vendée is the department which grants the most PTZs if we relate to the number of households. In 2023, 1,181 PTZs were issued, or 3.8 PTZs per 1,000 households. La Roche Agglomération displays the largest number of operations (12% of the departmental volume), ahead of Terres de Montaigu and Challans-Gois (10%). Note that in terms of the number of households, the Pays des Achards displays good dynamics with 11.3 PTZ issued per 1,000 households, due to its position between La Roche and Les Sables.
But the situation has changed since April 1, 2024 with the end of the PTZ for new individual housing. Remember that in 2023, 72% of PTZs were issued for house construction. He was thus the main driving force behind first-time homeownership. After April 1, 2024, the number of PTZs logically collapsed. From 230 loans granted in the first half of 2024, we increased to 80 in the second.
While the Barnier government seemed to be ready to revise its copy and make the PTZ universal again, without limiting any geographical area or type of property (new or old, apartment or house), censorship froze everything. It remains to be seen whether or not the future government will adopt the planned measures. “Everything could quickly be unblocked if these measures are included in the finance law,” estimates Didier Le Bras, director of Adile, who recalls that “the PTZ should not be seen as a simple State expenditure, but as a an investment which brings in revenue thanks to the VAT of the constructions which fill the state coffers”. Case to be continued with the future Bayrou government.
An existing market in crisis…
The results are not very encouraging on the side of the former. After two exceptional years in 2021 and 2022, the existing home market plummeted in 2023. drop of 20% real estate transactions compared to 2022 with 12,583 sales. Like the national sector which shows a decline of 22%. A downward trend which appears to continue in 2024 with only 5,244 sales recorded in the first half. A decline that does a lot of harm to communities “because they receive less transfer rights,” notes Didier Le Bras.
These sales are concentrated in four territories: La Roche Agglo (1,511 homes sold), the country of Saint-Gilles (1,456), Les Sables-d'Olonne Agglomération (1,309) and Sud Vendée Littoral (1,195), i.e. 44% of sales achieved in 2023.
In terms of the existing stock, it is the Pays des Achards, Fontenay and La Châtaigneraie which display the strongest dynamics with a rate of 3.3 housing units sold per 100 existing housing units, where the departmental average is 2.9.
…despite falling sales prices
And plateau has been reached on the price side in the former. “We have experienced increases for ten years, with an acceleration post-covid. After 2023, a plateau seems to have been reached and we notice a sagging, which remains slight », tempers the director of Adile. In 2023, the median price of housing reaches €215,000 and in the first half of 2024 presents a drop of 4%. As a reminder, the surge in prices had not spared any Vendée region. All had seen an increase of around 30% over the past three years.
Needless to say, the disparity in prices between the coast and the east of the department, with a median price of €130,000 around Pouzauges, €448,085 on the islands, €300,000 for Les Sables, more than €200,000 for La Roche Agglo and Challans and all border areas at 44 and 49, prices benefiting from the proximity of Nantes or Angers.
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