On the business side, while the number of business failures continues to rise in 2024, marking a sort of return to normal after their collapse in post-Covid thanks to the support of government measures (partial unemployment, PGE and deferral of charges), it is above all their structure that is worrying. Data from the Banque de France indeed reveal that in August 2024, the failures of Small Enterprises, Medium Enterprises and ETI-GE are respectively 63.4%, 52.1% and 84.8% higher than their long-term average, indicating that in the past they have concerned much more companies of significant size! Another cause for turkey phone number list concern, INSEE data also reveal that the margin rate of companies has eroded significantly in less than a year (falling from 33% in the 3rd quarter of 2023 to 30.8% in the 2nd quarter of 2024).
The Construction – Real Estate sector is at the forefront of the sectors affected. After a decade of prosperity, the sector has been hit hard by the combined rise in raw material costs and interest rates. Since the rise in the latter, initiated in the first quarter of 2023 to combat inflation, the marketing of housing has shown worrying signs. The number of sales to individuals has collapsed (down by half in the first quarter of 2024 compared to the period 2015-2019) and stock clearance times have exploded. It is sales to institutional players, led by social landlords, that are allowing the sector to limit the damage [1] . Housing permits have also fallen sharply (-5.6% in August 2024 compared to July) as have construction starts (-5.5% over one month) to stand at less than a third of their average before the health crisis.
The market recorded a drop in prices. Over one year, housing prices fell by 4.6% in the 2nd quarter of 2024, after a drop of 4.8% in the previous quarter. This drop is more marked in existing properties (-5.0%), while new housing prices fell moderately (-1.3%). This market reversal led to a sharp increase in insolvencies in construction and especially the real estate sector and affected the entire value chain, from construction to notaries and real estate agents. Nexity, Vinci immobilier and Bouygues immobilier, three of the major emblematic operators in the sector, all announced social plans at the start of this year.