France housing starts (12-month): grouped one-dwelling buildings
France housing starts (12-month): grouped one-dwelling buildings stood at 31,600 Number in Aug 2026, according to INSEE – Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques (BDM). It is one of the indicators in the Housing permits and starts table (Value · Monthly), with a complete series running from Dec 2000 to Aug 2026. The complete series with an interactive chart, free to download.
This indicator in the Housing permits and starts table
| Indicator | 08-2026 | 07-2026 | 06-2026 | 05-2026 | 04-2026 | 03-2026 | 02-2026 | 01-2026 | 12-2025 | 11-2025 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of started dwellings - 12-month aggregate - Grouped one-dwelling buildings - Metropolitan France | 31,600 | 31,200 | 30,800 | 30,800 | 30,700 | 30,300 | 29,800 | 29,700 | 29,500 | 29,000 | |
| Number of started dwellings - 12-month aggregate - Two-and-more dwelling buikldings and residences for communities - Metropolitan France | 185,600 | 182,300 | 180,200 | 180,300 | 176,400 | 173,200 | 167,000 | 166,000 | 163,900 | 157,600 | |
| Number of started dwellings - 12-month aggregate - Total - Metropolitan France | 289,600 | 284,000 | 279,700 | 277,300 | 271,800 | 266,600 | 258,000 | 255,800 | 252,800 | 245,200 |
Understanding france housing starts (12-month): grouped one-dwelling buildings
Physical construction commencements restricted specifically to grouped single-family residential projects are accumulated over a rolling twelve-month timeframe within the designated mainland territory. This category isolates semi-detached houses, terraced townhouses, and linked residential structures where individual households occupy distinct vertical properties sharing common walls or land parcels, separating them from high-rise apartment blocks and isolated detached homes. The twelve-month aggregation window provides a continuous reading of low-density collective building activity without distortion from monthly administrative backlogs.
Evaluating this construction start metric requires noting how developer strategies in suburban and peri-urban zones influence the series. Because grouped housing often responds differently to financing costs and land availability compared to standalone villas or large apartment buildings, tracking this specific structure type highlights shifts in middle-density residential preferences. Analysts avoid direct month-on-month comparisons due to the lumpiness of housing project groundbreakings, relying instead on the annualized trajectory. Revisions in this series typically reflect late reporting from municipal building inspectors rather than retrofitted historical recalculations.
Frequently asked questions
- What defines a grouped single-family building in this dataset?
- It includes semi-detached, terraced, or row houses where individual households live in separate private dwellings that share party walls.
- Why is a twelve-month rolling total used for grouped housing starts?
- The annual accumulation smooths out the irregular timing of residential estate groundbreakings and local weather disruptions.
- How does this differ from standalone single-family construction starts?
- Grouped structures share structural walls and are often built in small batches by developers, whereas standalone homes are typically detached single properties.