New house building in mainland France fell by 5.2% last year to 315,000, although this was an improvement on the substantial fall of 17% in 2012.

The annual housebuilding figures produced each year by the Ministère de l'Écologie, du Développement Durable do always need a degree of interpretation, for they are not entirely what they seem.

Most importantly, they include the conversion and renovation of existing buildings. Last year, some 36,000 homes were created from existing buildings, reducing the actual new homes construction figure down to around 279,000.

Of this total,112,206 were individual houses, with the rest being apartments, as well as homes for the elderly and disabled.

At the root of the continued fall in activity is the economic downturn, but there has also been a reduction in tax breaks for investors, which have historically been used as the motor for the new build housing sector.

Nevertheless, it is still an impressive total, far in excess of the circa 125,000 homes that are built each year in the UK. In France new homes creation rarely falls below 300,000 units per year.

As can be seen from the table below, by far the highest levels of activity last year occurred in the Ile-de-France, Provence-Alpes-Côte D’Azur and Rhône-Alpes, the main economic regions of the country.

The number of new homes built fell in all regions, except Aquitaine, where it increased by 15.1%, after falling by 27.8% in 2012, and Upper Normandy, where it increased by a more modest 3.8%.

Largest fall was in Champagne-Ardenne (-20.9%), which also fell by nearly 30% in 2012.

Source: SOes, Sit@del2