This is one example among many of the company failures that have occurred throughout 2024 in the construction sector. The fate of the builder of individual houses AST (and its real estate development subsidiary), a major player employing 450 people, was sealed on November 26 by the Lyon commercial court. If its “wooden houses” branch was taken over, and 118 jobs preserved, the rest of the activity was liquidated.
“This year has been cataclysmic”sums up Pascal Boulanger, president of the Federation of Real Estate Developers, in one word. France will only have started construction on 250,000 housing units in 2024, according to the latest figures from the French Building Federation, published Tuesday December 17. “We have not reached such a level since the 1950s, when at the time there were 20 million fewer French people”argues its president, Olivier Salleron.
For comparison, the number of new housing units started still reached 390,000 in 2022 and even 430,000 in 2017. “It will be even worse next year, predicts Mr. Salleron, with a further drop of 5% on new housing. We should go down to 240,000 housing units started in 2025.” This collapse would have resulted in the destruction of 30,000 jobs in 2024, and this figure is expected to increase to reach 100,000 jobs in 2025.
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