France - Building Permits





France: Building Permits

Mnemonic HPMT.IFRA
Unit #, NSA
Adjustments Not Seasonally Adjusted
Monthly 1.11 %
Data Jan 2024 31,833
Dec 2023 32,191

Series Information

Source Ministère des Transports, de l'Equipement, du Tourisme et de la Mer
Release Subnational - Permits and Starts: Current Definition (Monthly)
Frequency Monthly
Start Date 1/31/1980
End Date 1/31/2024

France: Real Estate

Reference Last Previous Units Frequency
Building Permits Jan 2024 31,833 32,191 #, NSA Monthly
Housing Starts Jan 2024 22,043 24,957 #, NSA Monthly
Residential Building Permits Jan 2024 27,533 27,383 #, NSA Monthly
Residential Housing Starts Jan 2024 16,385 21,301 #, NSA Monthly
Dwelling Stocks 2023 37,818 37,497 Ths. # Annual
House Price Index 2023 Q4 129.8 133.9 Index 2015Q1=100, NSA Quarterly
House Price Index for Existing Homes 2023 Q4 129.9 132.3 Index 2015Q1=100, SA Quarterly
House Price Value for New Homes 2023 Q4 341,242 350,025 EUR, NSA Quarterly
Vacancy 2023 3,086 3,061 Ths. # Annual
House Price Index for New Homes 2023 Q3 130.01 130.45 Index 2015=100, NSA Quarterly
Non-residential Building Permits Jul 2023 3,498 3,257 Ths. sq. m, NSA Monthly
Non-residential Housing Starts Jul 2023 1,693 2,161 Ths. sq. m, NSA Monthly

Release Information

For France, monthly residential stage of construction. The stages are: permits and starts. The typologies are: single-family homes, row homes, apartments, and residences within residences (i.e., retirement homes, military bases, convents, etc.). Reported by the Ministry for the Ecological and Inclusive Transition.

Moody's Analytics produces seasonally adjusted (SAAR) counterparts at the national geo level.

Vintage 2:

  • Measurement: Unitary count (#)
  • Adjustment: Not seasonally adjusted (NSA)
  • Native frequency: Monthly
  • Start date: Uniformly 2000m1
  • Geo coverage:
    • Country
    • ZEATS / NUTS 1 (13x IFRA_^^^^)
    • NUTS 2 (10x IFRA_^^)
    • NUTS 3 (4x IFRA_^^^)
  • All concept-geo pairs exist:

Vintage 1:

  • Measurement: Unitary count (#)
  • Adjustment: Not seasonally adjusted (NSA)
  • Native frequency: Monthly
  • Start dates:
    • 1980m1
    • 2008m1
    • 2009m3
    • 2014m1
  • End date: Uniformly 2023m7
  • Geo coverage:
    • Country
    • ZEATS / NUTS 1 (14x IFRA_^^^^)
    • NUTS 2 (27x IFRA_^^)
    • NUTS 3 (101x IFRA_^^^)
  • All concept-geo pairs exist:
  • Series count: 1,442
  • Archive specifier: "_23"

Global concept aliases:

  • HPMT
  • HPMTR
  • HST
  • HSTR

The results are published from the database Sit @ del2. It gathers information on building permits (permits) and housing starts provided by the department and ministry by local collectors. The results are expressed according to the date on which the event (authorization, open yard, etc.) is registered in the database Sit @ del2. These figures differentiate between new construction (completely new buildings) and construction on existing buildings (changes to existing housing or building additional housing adjacent to an existing building). The figures include the total number of housing units divided between ordinary and residential homes. In ordinary homes, a distinction is made between individual dwellings (pure and grouped) and collective dwellings. The housing residences (homes for the elderly, students, tourism, etc.) are characterized by the provision of individualized services (recreation, food, care or otherwise) in addition to lodging. Homes or hotels that comprise only rooms and common services are not classified as homes but as local hotel accomodations. 

The methodology of statistical information on building permits and housing starts has changed since the April 2009 release of the series. Now, the series are released by date according to the date on which the event (authorization, open yard, etc.) is registered in the database Sit @ del2. See below for more information on the methodology of the series.

The source writes:

"Authorization of construction (housing or nonresidential room) - Administrative decision catch by a qualified public authority in this respect, and having the aim of authorizing the construction of a housing or a nonresidential room. Such an authorization can relate to the construction of one or more new constructions, or the modification of one or more existing constructions."

The methodological changes described below apply to all historical data, including the early periods before the change in methodology, because the historical data were recalculated. The changes during the month (at the time of the data release) on permits already published (included on statistics for months or years earlier) are grouped in a new series called "patches" available on the website SOeS. This monthly series is like any other. This series includes cancellations and deviations (positive or negative) due to such modification to permits. Cancellations are also subject to a separate series. With this new method of accounting for cancellations and changes to permits, data at the time of release are not altered after publication each month. In the past, data were corrected during the following months. Consequently, annual data at the time of release account for the published data throughout the 12 months of the year (or 12 months 'rolling'). The new series' that distinguish new construction and building on existing permits allows the source to take better account of certain transactions, such as some pardons.

Moody's Analytics supplements

With vintage 2

These supplements pertain to the national geo level only:

  • We back-extend all reported series over the interval 1980m1 to 2019m12 by using their respective predecessors.
  • We calculate "non-institutional residences" as an additive identity, viz., the sum of three components.
  • For starts for "all residences" an NSA version is reported, but we construct a copy which corrects for data anomalies during 1982 and 1985.
  • For permits and starts for "all residences," we construct seasonally adjusted counterparts.

With vintage 1

We seasonally adjust and annualize total residences (HSQSTRRESUM.IFRA). The adjustment was done using the U.S. Census Bureau X-12 ARIMA software. The data is annualized by multiplying the seasonally adjusted monthly value by 12. We stimated the interval from 1982m4 to 1985m12. The values from Insee for this period are extremely volatile and do not match periods prior or post. The estimates were derived by dividing the last month in the quarter by three and interpolating the intervening months using a liner spline.

No. The results of authorizations are final.

Data Buffet obtains these data from specific ministries of the French government. The ministries are subject to frequent renaming and reorganization. 

  • Aug 2010 - Initial version.
  • Jul 2014 - Expanded geo coverage.
  • May 2015 - Change in source.
  • Jan 2018 - Expanded geo coverage.
  • 2 Feb 2024, Phillip Thorne - Change in source: Properties.