Several real estate developers are observing an increase in housing reservations by individual investors, after their desertion from the new real estate market last year, according to their quarterly results.
Publi-Information 
After several years of brutal contraction, the private rental investment segment seems to be beginning a timid recovery. Thanks to new tax signals and a slowly restructuring context, Real estate developers are observing a gradual return of individuals to the new housing marketwithout calling for a frank recovery.
A still fragile quiver, but now tangible
Altarea
If the return of investors constitutes an encouraging signal, it is not enough to mask the persistent disparities in the new housing market. All buyers combined, reservations show contrasting developments depending on the operators: + 14% in the first quarter for Altarea, + 1.9% for Kaufman & Broad, but a drop of 7% for Nexity.
THE Altarea group thus reported a particularly marked progressionwith a 54% jump over one year in housing sales for this clientele, or 270 reservations recorded in the first quarter. However, the Group, also present in the operation of shopping centers, recorded a turnover down 12.4% in the first quarter, to 381.4 million euros. A performance affected in particular by an 11.2% drop in revenues from its housing division, linked to the marketing of older programs, characterized by reduced margin levels.
Kaufman & Broad
For his part, Kaufman & Broad is also observing a rise in this clientele in its commercial mix : over the quarter from December 2025 to February 2026, sales to individual investors now represent 14% of reservations, compared to 10% a year earlier, confirming a trend shared across the sector.
Nexity
With nearly 1,500 accommodation reservations recorded in the first quarter, up 1% year-on-year and mainly concentrated in tense areas, Nexity highlights a solid start to the yearlikely to reinforce its expectations of improving operational profitability and reducing debt by 2026.
At the same time, turnover from development and promotion activities fell, to 518 million euros. Said “turnover does not reflect the commercial activity of this first quarter and this first quarter does not tell the story of the year. These results confirm the relevance of the model New Nexity with a well-positioned commercial offer“, commented Pierre-Henry Pouchelon, the Deputy Director General in charge of Finance.
In detail, the reservations made by first-time buyers show a slight decline, a development that the group links to the launch schedule of major programs intended for this clientele, expected from the second quarter. Conversely, the acquisitions made by private investors are on the rise, supported in particular by the implementation of the system Jeanbrun rental investment assistance.
At the same time, the block sales of housing to investors show a progression described as “very strong“, at + 38% compared to the first quarter of 2025. On the macroeconomic and geopolitical front, the group indicates that it does not see a significant impact on its performance at this stage, highlighting the relative stability of interest rates on real estate loans, which have “weakly evolved“, as well as “the protective effect” of Zero interest loan on the demand from first-time buyers.
The future “Lisière du Parc”, developed by Crédit Agricole Immobilier and Nexity, will consist of two buildings of 8 and 16 floors located in the heart of the dynamic Cartoucherie district in Toulouse – with delivery in the 4th quarter of 2028. © Nexity
Icade
For his part, Icade formalizes the commitment to reduce its workforcefollowing a consultation process carried out with its various bodies. “After consultation with the board of directors, Icade’s management and union organizations signed an agreement on a collective contractual termination (RCC), which was validated by the administration“, indicates the group in a statement sent to AFP, specifying that “the maximum number of departures is set at 93 employees“and that the measure concerns”all Icade professions“.
Subsidiary of Deposit and consignment officethe financial arm of the State, the group – with around 1,000 employees – deploys its activities in both real estate development and rental investment, mainly in the office segment, today particularly exposed to market changes. Faced with a real estate crisis that has been going on for almost three years, Icade has initiated a strategic refocusing, marked in particular by the sale of its health-related activities as well as by the arbitrage of part of its portfolio of assets, deemed insufficiently promising in the current environment.
Through this adjustment of its workforce, the group claims to pursue an objective of structural adaptation: “preserve the competitiveness of the company in a constantly evolving market“, while indicating wanting”best support the employees concerned in their professional repositioning“.
The expected effect of the Jeanbrun system after the end of Pinel
Adopted at the beginning of February in the state budget for 2026, the new tax incentive for rental investment – referred to as name of “Jeanbrun system” or status of the private lessor – today constitutes one of the main levers on which the profession relies in order to try to revive a stalled market.
The disappearance of the Pinel system, effective since the beginning of 2025, had in fact left a brutal void. According to the FPI (Federation of Real Estate Developers), sales of housing to individual investors fell by half in 2025 compared to the previous year, and even divided by seven in the space of a few years, under the combined effect of the new real estate crisis and the disappearance of this structuring tax advantage.
In this context, the sector is now banking on the gradual ramp-up of the new tax framework to recreate favorable conditions for investmenteven if the first effects observed remain, at this stage, still limited and largely dependent on household confidence.
