MARKET SUMMARY
BY CATELLA

In July 2025, the Council of State approved the new Master Plan for the Île-de-France region, the SDRIF-E 2040, (“Le schéma directeur de la Région Île-de-France”), which defines the region’s major planning guidelines for the next 15 years. This authoritative reference document imposes constraints on both local authorities and private stakeholders, as well as providing a comprehensive picture of the prospects for economic and urban development in the Ile de France region over the next 15 to 20 years.

The SDRIF E-2040 was developed following a series of consultations with a historic number of stakeholders and was therefore a highly consensual creation. This level of unanimity around a major planning document is very significant, because while the SDRIF can prohibit construction on, or otherwise define, how specific plots of land can be exploited, the majority of the guidelines set out in the document are non-binding. The wider environment in which the SDRIF was adopted should also be emphasised: a period of significant changes, and sometimes crises, having a profound impact on the Paris region. This has involved climate change, many new economic challenges, international upheaval and, more generally, the questioning of certain long-established models, particularly as they affect the work environment. The SDRIF E-2040 has declared a goal of Zero Net Artificialisation (ZAN). This further strengthens objectives put forward in the SDRIF 2013, while promoting the creation of housing. It also addresses issues such as the worsening regional vacancy rates for office buildings in recent years, the reindustrialisation of the Île-de-France region, and the regeneration and densification of certain urban areas.

Over the next two years, local municipal authorities will be obliged to follow these directives to ensure that their urban planning documents are compatible with the Master Plan. This study is intended to help provide essential information in order to “decipher” the complex major development initiatives for the Île-de-France region over the next fifteen years. We have focused on announced economic and urban development schemes up to 2040, as well as on economic data related to non-residential real estate that we believe are relevant to illustrating the many challenges needing to be addressed by both public and private stakeholders.