Jean-Luc Boujon (correspondent in Lyon), edited by Gauthier Delomez / Photo credits: Thibaut Durand / Hans Lucas / Hans Lucas via AFP 06:12, March 7, 2024

Job protection plans are starting to be implemented by certain real estate developers, a reflection of the crisis affecting the sector.

In Lyon, a professional met by Europe 1 explains the difficulties he encounters on a daily basis and which force him to part with part of his staff.

Philippe Layec is the regional director of Spirit Immobilier in Lyon.

Like all developers, he is very affected by the historic crisis in the sector, due to the rise in the cost of raw materials and the rise in property loan rates.

For the first time in his 18-year career, he had to give up on a building construction project in the Lyon metropolitan area.

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“This morning, I announced to the owners that I was giving up on the project. It was an operation involving around thirty housing units, which will not be carried out because it no longer has its financial balance today,” he indicates at the microphone of Europe 1. "It's a combination of constraints between a high land price, a work cost which is important and we arrive, to balance all that, at an exit price, a price sales, which would not have been realistic today. So we have to agree to give up on a project which could jeopardize my business", underlines Philippe Layec.

Overall activity halved in six years

According to the observation of the man who is also president of the Federation of Rhône Promoters, in six years, overall activity has been halved.

It is impossible in these conditions to keep all the jobs.

“All structures are reducing their workforce. And this is our case too: there were 17 of us, there will be 14 of us,” he specifies, affirming that it is “vital for the survival of the company in this difficult period and unprecedented".

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A developer who, faced with this historic crisis, is calling on the State to find, for example, an alternative to the Pinel system which will end at the end of the year.

Without this, the sector, which brings in a lot of revenue for the State via VAT on construction, will have great difficulty recovering.