The building structural work market in France

According to the Fédération française du bâtiment, building revenue in France reaches €193bn excluding VAT in 2025, down about 6% in value and 5% at constant prices. New construction, the core of structural building work, now accounts for only 39% of activity and is down 10% at constant prices. Improvement and maintenance, at €117bn, falls only about 1%, which steers structural work contractors towards heavy refurbishment.

The Fédération française du bâtiment puts the 2026 trend at 302,000 housing starts in France, more than 50,000 units below the average of the last forty years, despite a 26.4% rebound over seven months to end of July. According to the Service des données et études statistiques (SDES, the French statistics service for the environment and construction), 377,834 homes were authorised from October 2025 to September 2026, 9.1% fewer than the average of the previous five years. These volumes determine the order book of structural building work.

According to the SDES (Sitadel database), 21.0 million square metres of non-residential premises were started in France from October 2025 to September 2026, up 3.3% year on year. Authorised floor area, by contrast, falls 3.0% to 37.0 million square metres. For structural building work, this segment (offices, shops, warehouses, public facilities) supports short-term activity, but the fall in authorisations points to a slowdown in future sites.

Structural building work in France brings together major groups and general contractors, regional groups and thousands of masonry SMEs: the UMGO counts about 12,500 companies averaging 16 employees. Materials distribution follows: according to Négoce, in February 2025, structural work accounts for 35% of Chausson Matériaux’s €1.21bn revenue in 2024, whose sales fell by nearly 15%, like the materials merchant sector as a whole.

According to L’Usine nouvelle, in March 2025, the RE2020 environmental regulation (the French environmental standard for new buildings) has imposed stricter thresholds on new construction in France since 1 January 2025: the construction carbon indicator falls by 12% for single-family houses and by 17% for multi-family housing, ahead of a final step planned for 2028-2031. Structural building work, closely tied to concrete, must turn to low-carbon concrete, timber-concrete hybrids and bio-based materials.

A PDF report in French, 2026 edition, organised in six chapters: the scope of structural work, market size and dynamics, demand by segment, companies and competition, regulation and technical constraints, and market outlook.

Data from the Fédération française du bâtiment and the UMGO, SDES Sitadel statistics, Insee classifications and trade press articles from the IndexPresse database. Every figure comes with its source and period.

Yes. The study is updated before it is sent, within 48 hours at most: it includes the latest published data, and every figure comes with its source and period.

Masonry and structural work companies, general contractors, developers and project owners, materials manufacturers and merchants, as well as consultants, bankers and investors who need to understand structural building work in France.

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