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Building sector buoyed by reindustrialization

Published on September 25, 2023 by Pierre Belhache - 5 mins reading time
VSE/SME HCSF Real estate Environment Companies Startup/innovation CONSTRUCTION

While the crisis in housing construction persists, construction professionals can count on reindustrialization and the multiplication of logistics infrastructures. Considered a dynamic segment before Covid, the industrial sector has grown even more since the pandemic.

New housing: a historic crisis

Business failures, falling sales of single-family homes, declining building permits... The new housing sector is in the throes of a severe crisis, similar to the one that followed the 2008-2009 financial crisis, according to the French Building Federation (FFB).

 

" By 2025, if nothing is done, i.e. if the new-build crisis is allowed to run its course, building activity will decline by around 8% excluding the price effect, i.e. 14 billion euros less. This will be followed by a real rise in insolvencies and a fall in employment, with almost 150,000 job losses ", declared Olivier Salleron, its Chairman, at a press conference.

The FFB had previously forecast 100,000 job losses by 2025, but had already revised its forecasts upwards at the beginning of July. Today's scenario is even more critical.

The Federation has put forward a number of ideas to limit the consequences and duration of the crisis in the construction industry:

  • the request torelax the rules set by the HCSF (Haut Conseil de stabilité financière),
  • the introduction of a tax credit on loan interest,
  • and the creation of a single application file for CEE (energy saving certificates).

Building market supported by industry

In its latest economic outlook, the FFB reports a 4.2% increase in authorized floor space for industrial and similar buildings over the 7 months to the end of July. Representing 41% of non-residential construction by 2022, this is the most dynamic market segment.

In an interview with Les Echos newspaper, Alin Tayar, Managing Director of the NGE Group's construction division, sees the industrial building market as " a growth driver for the years to come ".

The industry was " a dynamic segment before Covid, which has grown and accelerated since the pandemic ", confirms Patrick Zulian, Vice-President of Spie batignolles.

According to building professionals, this dynamic mainly concerns four sectors of :

  • the pharmacy,
  • energy,
  • the environment,
  • and plans for mega-factories to manufacture batteries for electric vehicles.

This trend is confirmed by the latest survey on employment and investment in industry in France, carried out by economic data publisher Trendeo, according to which eight industrial projects worth at least 250 million euros have been announced for the first half of 2023, compared with just two in the first half of 2009. In the environmental sector, for example, the Nice Côte d'Azur metropolitan area has launched the construction of a new wastewater treatment plant, an operation worth 700 million euros excluding tax.