“We are going to experience a very complicated first half of 2025”: the French Building Federation of Gard warns of the crisis

Pierre Martin, président de la Fédération française du bâtiment du Gard, alerte. Midi Libre – Archive M. A.

Pierre Martin, president of the French Building Federation in the Gard, announces an unprecedented crisis since the dissolution and the motion of censure. 500 jobs have been cut since the beginning of the year.

Real estate projects on hold or postponed, 500 jobs cut in one year in the Gard, a 6% drop in the number of jobs in the last quarter… Gard building professionals have been sounding the alarm since last summer and the dissolution.

The motion of censure at the end of this fall has added instability according to the president of the French Building Federation of the Gard Pierre Martin: “We are expecting a very complicated first half of 2025. We are like the Titanic ship that is hitting the iceberg. We have seen it coming for two years and the political situation has not helped!”

Progress put on hold

The progress and measures obtained within the framework of the 2025 finance bill have been put on hold since the motion of censure: “Due to political quarrels, we find ourselves with the 2024 finance bill which will be renewed.” However, the Prim Rénov mechanism was able to pass just before the motion of censure. But other files remain pending.

Pierre Martin listed the advances included in the 2025 Finance Bill that they hope to see come to fruition in the coming months. First of all, this concerns the zero-rate loan extended to all territories, but also the capping of the reduction of solidarity rents which concerns social landlords (€1.1 billion): “We had also obtained the limited exemption of donations for the acquisition of a main residence in a new building at €100,000. A young person who wants to buy a first property can benefit from it.”

The FFB was banking on its systems and also proposed to reduce the VAT exemption of foreign companies, from other European countries, which come to work in France: “VAT would thus be paid much earlier and this would bring in more than €2 billion in tax revenue.”The organization does not want to appear as the one that is asking for new state aid at all costs knowing that the coffers are empty but at least common sense measures so that the construction industry does not collapse.

Public orders are no longer following

Problem! Companies are faced with the choice of individuals to take a break or postpone their renovation work. In addition, public orders will not be able to maintain activity, as in other years of crisis, since local authorities must also tighten their belts.

Which alarms Pierre Martin: “We see the difficulties. The President of the Region announced that she would not launch projects to build new high schools, the Department has not started work on its four middle schools in the Gard. Other real estate projects such as the future penitentiary center south of Nîmes could be postponed […] We are seeing a 40% drop in new construction starts in one year.”

This pause in projects has cascading consequences and affects craftsmen, first masonry companies, then those responsible for finishing work. In Occitanie, 1,300 building company failures were recorded this year, an increase of 31% on the average for the past decade. A situation that has not been seen for more than ten years and the post-subprime crisis era. The nightmare episode to avoid.

The national president of the FFB in Nîmes at the beginning of 2025

For its New Year's ceremony on Thursday, January 23, 6 p.m., in its premises located in the Georges Besse park in Nîmes, the French Building Federation of Gard will welcome its national president Olivier Salleron. The opportunity to take stock of the alarming situation in 2025 and find a way out of the crisis.

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