Michel Barnier faces the thorny issue of housing, one of his 12 Labors of Hercules

The new Prime Minister is expected at the turning point by real estate professionals, in the midst of a crisis in the sector. A candidate for the LR investiture for the 2022 presidential election, he had indeed promised a “plan to restart a significant number of housing units”. The name of Isabelle Le Callennec, one of his close associates, is reportedly starting to circulate for the Ministry of Housing.

“Rebuilding a significant number of housing units”. During their next interviews with Michel Barnier, whom they hope to meet very soon, real estate professionals should not fail to remind the new Prime Minister of this sentence pronounced less than three years ago. Michel Barnier was then a candidate for the LR (Les Républicains) investiture for the 2022 presidential election.

Invited in October 2021 by the French Building Federation (FFB) to present his program, he had announced his intention to“substantially increase aid for energy renovation”especially for the low-income households. This objective was part of “a much broader plan that would restart a significant number of housing units” in France, added Michel Barnier, also advocating a simplification of town planning standards, a headache for developers.

Michel Barnier’s housing roadmap will be complicated

The building industry has been calling for such a plan since Emmanuel Macron’s first five-year term, “housing supply shock” promised by the President of the Republic in 2017 never having taken place. Seven years later, the housing sector urges the future government to take the measure of a real estate crisis unprecedented, which prevents many French people from buying a home, or even renting one, as shown again by the figures published this Thursday by the Federation of Real Estate Developers (FPI). Olivier Salleron, president of the FFB, who has obviously not forgotten Michel Barnier’s promises at the end of 2021, therefore confesses to Capital that he feels “a rather positive a priori” after the appointment of the former Brexit negotiator at Matignon.

“His vision on energy renovation is important”adds Loïc Cantin, president of Fnaim (national real estate federation). Especially at a time when the draft finance bill for 2025 could result in a drop of 1.7 billion euros in the budget allocated to MyPrimeRenovworries Effy, a company specializing in energy efficiency in housing. The Social Union for Housing (USH) goes further by demanding that the new head of government “perpetuation and amplification” of the financing plan for the energy renovation of the social housing stock, presented almost a year ago by the Borne government. Michel Barnier “is clearly an environmentalist”recalls Philippe Pelletier, president of the Sustainable Building Plan.

Isabelle Le Callennec’s name is reportedly circulating for the Ministry of Housing

Real estate professionals are not, however, under any illusions. They know that Michel Barnier’s roadmap, particularly in terms of housing, will be very complicated, due to the savings needed to restore public finances. Who will support him at the Ministry of Housing? The name ofIsabelle Le Callennecclose to Michel Barnier, would begin to circulate, Henry Buzy-Cazaux, president of the Institute of Real Estate Services Management, told Capital. A “excellent hypothesis. Several times elected to territorial executives, mayor, regional vice-president, national and European deputy, pilot of the reflection on housing policy, trained by Pierre Méhaignerie in the issues of regional planning and housing, Isabelle Le Callennec would know how to inspire effective action to relaunch the offer”, judge Henry Buzy-Cazaux in a post on LinkedIn.