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Will the downturn in the Paris region property market lead property companies to turn to ad hoc proceedings, as they did in the 1990s?

La baisse du marché immobilier va-t-elle conduire les foncières à se tourner vers le mandat ad hoc comme dans les années 90 ? 

La baisse de la demande pèse sur le marché des bureaux en Ile-de-France et l’investissement dans l’immobilier d’entreprise est au plus bas depuis 2010. Cette tendance baissière, combinée avec la hausse des taux d’intérêts qui érode la rentabilité des projets en cours va-t-elle conduire à une crise du marché immobilier comme au début des années 90? 

En 1993, le taux d’intérêts légal en France avait atteint un pic de 10,4% avant de refluer progressivement. Cette situation dans un marché immobilier bloqué avait alors conduit à l’émergence d’une pratique amiable et confidentielle de traitement des difficultés, le mandat ad hoc. Depuis 30 ans, cette pratique à laquelle s’est ajoutée la conciliation, a connu un immense succès et s’est étendue à tous les secteurs d’activités et à tous les pays européens. 

Cela étant, pour des foncières prises dans un effet de ciseaux entre des taux qui montent et une rentabilité en baisse, la prévention des difficultés du Livre VI du Code de commerce (mandat ad hoc et conciliation) demeure certainement et toujours l’outil le mieux adapté.

Will the downturn in the property market lead property companies to turn to ad hoc proceedings, as they did in the 1990s? 

Falling demand is weighing on the office market in the Paris region, and investment in commercial property is at its lowest level since 2010. Will this downward trend, combined with rising interest rates eroding current projects' profitability, lead to a crisis in the property market like in the early 90s? 

In 1993, the legal interest rate in France peaked at 10.4% before gradually falling back. This situation, in a frozen property market, led to the emergence of an amicable and confidential procedure for dealing with difficulties, the mandat ad hoc. Over the past 30 years, this practice, to which conciliation has been added, has been extremely successful and has spread to all business sectors and all European countries. 

That said, for property companies caught between rising interest rates and falling profitability, the prevention of difficulties under Book VI of the French Commercial Code (ad hoc mandate and conciliation) certainly remains the most appropriate tool.

"il faut s'y faire : le marché des bureaux en Ile-de-France ne reviendra jamais à ses niveaux d'avant la pandémie et d'avant le développement massif du télétravail"

"get used to it: the office market in the Paris region will never return to its pre-pandemic levels, or to the levels that prevailed before the massive development of teleworking"

(Eric Siesse, directeur général adjoint de BNP Paribas Real Estate)

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