Toulouse: new housing holds a fair and asks questions
At the new housing fair in Toulouse, fewer products were available on a market made fragile by the crisis but where demand remains there, favoring the rise in prices. The builders wonder about the future, about the funds of town planning rules in reconstruction and sustainable development.
At the new housing fair, there was no question of kicking into touch. The annual meeting of “those who have a real estate project” has returned to its premises at the Stade Toulousain. After the cancellation of the 2021 edition, due to the health crisis, the builders are back at the Ernest-Wallon stadium in Toulouse. But, to continue in the rugby metaphor, we feel that 2022 is a bit like half-time in the game that is played in the world of construction.
250 programs presented compared to 400 in 2020
“The current crisis will have consequences, notes Stéphane Aubay, regional president of promoters of the FPI (federation of promoters) Toulouse-Occitanie in the preamble to the inauguration, this Friday March 11 at 11 a.m., the market is very fragile, we do not we are presenting only 250 programs this year compared to 400 in 2020”.
“If we don’t find a high level of production, prices will continue to rise,” comments Jean-Luc Moudenc. The president of Toulouse Métropole also evokes the cancellation of the urban plan (PLUiH) of the metropolis by the administrative court of Toulouse, “an evil for a good”, according to him. “We are in the process of developing PLUiH n° 2, it will be the first in France, in 2025, to respect the law imposing the non-artificialization of soils”, indicates Jean-Luc Moudenc, “it will mark a balance between Toulouse and the outskirts, with diversity (35% of HLM) and an intensification of the city along major axes and near public transport”. Understand: we will build higher and denser. “This additional densification will be accepted if it is aesthetic and qualitative, with plant development”, assures the mayor of Toulouse, who signed yesterday with the promoters and Jean-Michel Fabre, president of the USH (Social Union for Habitat , bringing together social landlords), a charter to speed up the processing of building permits (the Order of Architects refused to sign).
Do away with concrete?
In this uncertain climate, Philippe Madec, urban architect adept in responsible construction and “happy frugality”, proposed via a conference and a debate, his solutions. : no reinforced concrete “emitter of 40% of CO2 and three times more harmful than planes”, no air conditioning or ventilation or PVC, but biosourced materials (raw earth, wood, carbon-free concrete, etc.) for healthier and more pleasant housing. And “rather housekeeping than fitting out”. A speech not yet audible by the promoters: “We are in phase with all that, but in real life it does not really work like that”, decided Pascal Boulanger, national president of the FPI.