26 | Country Focus: France
SUMMARY
■ France is reported to need to build 400,000 new homes a year
■The French timber construction industry saw turnover increase by 0.5% to over €4.6bn
■ Some 87% of companies manufacture their house kits in a workshop or factory
POSITIVITY IN FRENCH TIMBER BUILDING
Like France’s construction sector generally, the country’s economic malaise has adversely impacted its timber industry. But a new report sees strong prospects ahead. Mike Jeffree reports
Despite a deep downturn in France’s wider construction market, the turnover of the timber building sector increased in 2024, albeit marginally. That is according to the latest biennial report on the industry from Codifab, the French Professional Committee for the Development of the French Furniture and Timber Industries. Moreover, the country’s timber builders are expecting market improvement through 2025 and beyond.
France is reported to need to build 400,000 new homes to meet the country’s housing requirements. But last year, according to online construction news platform
Batinfo.com, just 59,014 were built and put on sale, 29% less than in 2023 and half as many as in 2022. Between June 2023 and June 2024, 30,500 building jobs were lost.
Government measures to boost the building industry and general economic improvement are expected to result in a gradual turnaround through 2025. But according to Pascal Boulanger, president of the French Federation of Real Estate Developers: “It will take between two and three years to get the machine going again”.
Above: Timber construction companies are planning investment and recruitment TTJ | July/August 2025 |
www.ttjonline.com
Against this bleak back drop, however, says the Codifab commissioned report, the French timber construction industry saw turnover increase by 0.5% to over €4.6bn. Timber-based house building volume was also not immune to France’s turgid economy. In fact, timber framed units completed were down 17% at 18,250, but that was some way below the steep slump in house construction generally.
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