Good morning, everybody. This is the annual presentation of Kaufman & Broad. Before we start, we will have a Q&A at the end of the presentation. First, we'll answer the questions from the people in person, and then the questions in writing. You can use the question tab in the podcast, or you can dial star one on your phones. We're going to listen to Nordine Hachemi, the CEO of Kaufman & Broad. Thank you.
Thank you. Hello. Thank you for being with us. These are the annual results for 2025. Our year ends on the thirtieth of November. I keep on repeating that every single year, but it's a good thing to repeat that. As usual, we'll start with the first slide. The first slide is a summary of the main parameters that we follow.
This is our scorecard, if you will, which is something that gives us a good appraisal of the short-term and mid-term business or activity in our group. The first chart is our portfolio, the land portfolio, housing land portfolio. That is, those are the documents we've signed with those who own the land. The land which possibly could be land where we would build our housing units, for which we would have construction permits, even though we've not yet received the construction permits. Well, as long as the land's not been bought, it's in the housing land portfolio. The numbers were going down for a number of years. We would readjust the portfolio on the basis of economic parameters, including the rates that were going up.
There were renegotiations of, of the land, and therefore, we've decided to set aside some projects that we thought wouldn't be good enough, given the economic situation. And since 2024, again, the numbers are going up, which is something very important in terms of our company's future development. Then, if we look at housing orders, that's the shorter term, they're up as well. We'll look at the details in a minute, but we had two different periods. During the first nine months, there was sustained growth or increase, and then there was a slowdown on the market. Then the take-up rates are still very dynamic.
The take-up rate is something that means the time it takes to sell all the units we have at a moment in time, and then the total backlog at EUR 2.4 billion, more or less, with a company property backlog that has had ups and downs, variations that we'll talk about in a minute, and this factors in the EDF headquarters in the town of Marseille, in the south of France. Now, a few words about the housing market to start with. As you can see here, the objective is to show you what usually happens six months before the local elections that we call the municipal elections. Look at the trend, which started in 2025. So six months before the local elections, as you can see, and that's the yellow curve, or the yellow bars, as you can see, rather.
That's 6 months ahead of the municipal elections. That's when the construction permits go down before the elections, and then there's an upward trend afterwards, and that's why, as you can see, we have cycles. We usually say that the property market is cyclical. There's no reason for that, no normal reason. There are cycles because of the elections. So we create these artificial cycles due to these elections, and there are other cycles also due to other reasons. For instance, the regulation that keeps on changing or the legal framework that changes. But if you look at the market, these are like essential needs that you have to cover. We can't say that there are any cycles or if there were to be a cycle, it would be totally different.
So, as I was saying, before the elections, there's the drop, and then for the very first time, for the past 20 years, look at the right-hand side of the chart. Look at the construction permits that we get, usually low, but this time there's an increase before the local elections. How come? Well, this is something that we've heard from the politicians. We've reached a level that's so low that everybody today has realized that we can't go on like that. We can't say we want to freeze construction for new housing units in France. People are all aware of that. You've probably heard that there's a correlation between the population decrease and the fact that we don't have enough housing units and all the consequences connected to the population decrease.
We have fewer housing units and fewer babies, and this is not consistent if you think that people have. Well, people say that people have to take their retirement at the age of 60. Anyway, there's awareness, and despite the fact that there are local elections soon, the mayors give us these permits. They give us the permits. They say, "Please don't do anything before the elections." But at least they look at the documents that we filed for construction permits, and that's good news for us in this very dull economic backdrop. Pisani-Ferry was an economist who was very proud 10 years ago to say that during presidential elections, he was saying, "We shouldn't invest in property if it's not productive." It was so non-productive that, you know, demographic numbers or population numbers were going down.
You don't need to have the Nobel Prize. You know that the first driving force is population, if it's going up or not. If there are no human beings on Earth, there's no economy. So non-productive investments, look at what it's going to lead us to. And now, as you've probably heard, everybody today is talking about building new housing units, and 400-500,000 people are saying we need to build more housing units. That's interesting. An interesting trend, which is quite conducive for our business, which means that the paradigm is going to shift, politically speaking, when we talk about constructing or building new housing units. Now, this is a comparison between us and the other market players.
Usually, when we do this benchmark, we talk about how good and dynamic our company is, and so these are the usual numbers that we show you. We're doing quite well. If you look at the change, year-on-year change, for the net orders that we've received for this period, 2025, 2024, look at the market players and the evolution and what we've done. We're doing well, I'd say. And then I'll tell you more about last year in a minute, but first, the housing units. 400,000 is the latest number. Between 400,000 and 500,000 is the number that people talk about. That is number of housing units. Difficult to appraise, though. And the most serious report that we have was talking about these housing needs and how they can be computed.
Well, you see, the households are changing, and population is changing as well. People behave differently. Now we have many one-person families or one-adult families. In the past, people wouldn't divorce, whereas nowadays, people get married, they split, and this leads to different types of housing needs, different types of households. Some of these housing units are very old. And then, if you look at what's on the slide, you will see that there are other types of needs that have to be covered for those who need to take a home for a quick period of time. I'm not talking about Airbnb, but we need these buffer housing units because people have to travel for their own professional reasons.
So between 400,000 and 500,000 units, but at present, we're at 250,000 units, more or less. Anyway, this really shows that there's a correlation between the decrease in housing units and the typology of households, the types of households that are changing. This is very much connected to the short-term or mid-term population trends. And people are saying now we need 2 million housing units before the year 2030. Well, this is all very nice because it means that people are more aware of what's happening. However, the state or the government is not the one that's going to give you the construction permits. So what's very important is to see what the mayors are going to do. Will they continue and grant more permits or not?
Because you know what's difficult to the mayors, well, apart from the fact that, over the past 10 years, people were always looking at the construction of new housing units in a negative way, and that's why they didn't want to grant any more permits. But there's another topic, which is what we call in French, the taxe d'habitation. When the elected representatives build these housing units, there are other costs attached that the towns have to pay. For instance, primary schools are paid by the cities. There's more public transport. When the population is going up in a village or town, then the mayors will increase the home tax so that they can collect more money. Now, this taxe d'habitation tax has never been challenged or questioned. There was a direct link between what was paid and the services that people would get.
You would know you'd pay your tax, and you'd get more public transport or schools, for instance. When this tax was canceled, that was the equivalent of EUR 40 million that disappeared altogether. So back to our business. As I was saying, we have a portfolio, a land portfolio, which is going up again. Well, we've not reached yet the level that we had several years ago. Anyway, it's important to see that there's an upward trend and that what we have in the portfolio is good, given the economic and tax environment. Let's have a look at the breakdown. What's interesting here is to see that we're selling our projects in a different way. There's an increase for the first-time buyers, as you can see, and for those who buy their homes or flats.
If you look at investors, they're at the same level as 2024, with the end of the Pinel scheme, with different products, though, and projects. We have managed residences, for instance. Yet these projects are quite interesting for the investors, the Pinel investors. We'll have a look at the schemes that exist today, all that William is going to be talking you through, then the take-up period. Now, what's more important than the gap between us and the other market players is the changes. There's sustained momentum, but when the market was doing well, that's in 2018, 2020, we were also quite constant in terms of the take-up rate. That is, we don't necessarily follow the market, which really shows that the projects where we have mirror the needs of our clients and what they want to buy.
We're not waiting for rates to go down, for instance, mortgage rates to go down. We don't want to have a special tax scheme, because when the tax schemes vanish, we can't sell the housing units any longer. On the contrary, look at the markets. They suffer from these ups and downs, these hurdles on the way. Whereas what we do is that we think much more about the longer run, and the decisions we make are such that we know that we have a good sell-through, that we can sell the housing units. We're not passive, we are very active on the housing market, and that's why we outperform compared with the other players on the market. Then the backlog. We've talked about the backlog before.
The housing backlog is more or less stable versus last year's, and now we have to still work on the housing backlog because our intention is to still improve in the years to come, and there's room for us to improve. Now, it is very much based on the mayors and local elected representatives who will be giving us more housing construction permits. Before we listen to William, here's something about our development. Now, this is perhaps not something you factor in when you analyze our company, but we're still developing our management activity. We manage students' residences. There are a number of projects that we are currently developing, and we hope that in the years to come, we'll have more or less 4,000 rooms for students, excluding external acquisitions. We're not excluding this altogether.
We'd like perhaps to take over a company that does student managed residences, so that's service. But we also have La Banque des Territoires, 51% in La Banque des Territoires, and Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations has 49%. We have five residences in the portfolio, and we have a residence for which the works are going to start in the town of Courbevoie for students. This residence is going to be in that pocket that we're developing. The objective is to have it in the property company. We want to develop this portfolio, and we want to operate the business for a number of years, and then we'll continue and develop this property company as best as we can. We'll listen now to William. William's going to talk you through... Yes, come, come, William.
He's going to talk you through the regulation and the tax environment.
[Foreign language], Nordine.
Thank you, Nordine. So today you have this new act that is being passed, so we need to wait for the decree order so that the rules are really implemented. So what we have so far is the interest-free loan, PTZ in French. Oh, I have to speak near and use the mic. Okay, well, maybe you should give me the other mic, this would be easier. So this is being prolonged in 2026. So the ceilings are now higher and the amounts also. So this interest-free loan is going to allow for a BRS. So, so if you were making an acquisition, a second acquisition, you were not allowed to make use of this BRS.
This is no longer the case, and this is going to make things much easier. Also in 2026, so, and this already started in 2025, we now have boosters. More and more banks are offering additional loans up to EUR 30,000 or EUR 40,000 that come on top of the interest-free loan, and this means that the average interest rate or the average total amount is lower for the people buying those housing units. Well, we're talking about a large volume in 2026, several thousand housing units in 2026, and we have started to launch a programs using the BRS in 2025, and we are seeing many advantages compared with the price of new housing units.
If you include a VAT, it's between 30%-38%, so that is the price difference with a new housing unit. So this allows us to have access to some people who wouldn't be able to buy a housing unit otherwise. So those BRS are a joint leasehold. Now, you also have LMNP, so this is a non-professional furnished rentals. This is kept, you know, by removing the amortization and reintegrating after eating it afterwards. So this really put a halt to the acquisitions in September, because people were wondering whether this was still a good idea. So now LMNP, so this scheme is being kept, and this is the only scheme that has been in existence for the past few years now.
It hasn't been modified, and this has allowed us to provide for successful programs, for example, for student housing. You have also reduced notary fees and the PEL, which is a property savings plan. So those are also maintained. Also, property tax exemptions and additional loans, so all this is being kept. On this slide, there's something is missing, it's the years, talking about 2022-2025. What you see is the expected impact of those new schemes, provided for under this new act. And this is true for commercial, but also for the rest of the market. This has a strong impact on the first-time and second-time buyers.
Low volumes since 2022 were essentially due to private investors making few acquisitions, and the trend should now change slightly. So let's talk about the Jeanbrun scheme. That's the name of this scheme for private lenders, private landlords. Now, we need to wait for the decree order. We don't know when this is going to be implemented exactly. So you have the main explanations here. You have the possibility to amortize the investment, and the amortization rate for new housing units is 3.5% per year. For an intermediate rent, 4.5% social housing and 5.5% for a high social housing units.
Now, the amortization of the property is up to 80% of the acquisition costs, within a limit of EUR 8,000 per year. This is applicable throughout the country, throughout France. Obviously, we are talking about A or A-1 areas. The minimum rental period is 9 years, and we're only talking about unfurnished rentals as a primary residence. Obviously, a tenant, so, have to have a limited, a limited income, limited financial resources. There are ceilings. We're talking about 85% of the population here, so, we don't think that this will lead to fewer possible tenants. Now, regarding the tax exemptions, obviously, we are talking about people in the higher tax bracket.
Those are the ones who are going to benefit most from this scheme. So, taxable income is going to be reduced. It can be cumulated with a property deficit. They do not have to invest in specific areas in France. People can choose where to invest. And it's the only investment for which you can take up a loan. And banks, since 2025, agreed to finance up to 100% of the costs, which means that investors will only have to pay upfront for the notary fees. Now, regarding the limitations, the ceilings are below market rental prices, up to EUR 1 or EUR 2.5 per square meter, which is quite limited.
But, there is one limitation here that you need to be aware of, that people aren't allowed to rent to close family members, their parents, their children. This was something that people were able to do under the Pinel scheme, but they are no longer able to do under this new scheme. So with the Jeanbrun scheme, people have the possibility to invest in real estate. It's no longer about, a tax exemption scheme. It really is about, allowing people to invest in real estate, and benefit from a rental amortization. So we'll have to see how things go. We are obviously going to need a few years to see how it is going to be implemented, how people are going to adopt the scheme and include it in their investment strategies.
Let me give you an example. This is a couple they want to invest in for their retirement. So you have the amount on the slide. So the apartment price, EUR 199,000, notary fees, EUR 4,100. We've added various costs, the monthly repayments, so. And the average monthly savings invested in the transaction are EUR 336. And if we look at the net forward gain, it's EUR 34,837. So we haven't reached the EUR 8,000 ceiling for the year. So if you look at the EUR 199,000, 80%, a ten-year amortization, EUR 66,864, so which is significant.
You have a property deficit of EUR 47,000 . So really, this is a good scheme. We've obviously prepared all the examples, but this is what I wanted to show to you today. There's another example. You have Axel now, who is our, the digital lead. We've been working with Axel on our new website, and with Nordine and, David. We thought it would be a good idea to present this new website to you today. This website is very different from all other sites that you've seen in the real estate industry. It's people looking for a unit, for a housing unit, not just a program. So instead of landing on a page that will show all the programs, you will land on a page that shows all the housing units.
So what you see on this website is if you look for a 2-room or a 2-bedroom apartment, or 1-bedroom apartment, or anything else in Courbevoie, you can select various parameters, and there is a filter that also allows you to compare the various proposals and various units. Using an AI tool, we present various outlooks, so for this unit. So right now, there's one, but in the future, 2 or 3, which allow people to truly customize the unit. So for this unit, you will have access to the main information, and you also have a text that is displayed, that is also generated using an AI tool.
So you have a description of the housing unit, and you will have a video in the future with an avatar that will present this unit to you. So if you want, if you don't want to read it, and if you are in the subway and you don't want to read the document, all you can click on the video option and simply listen to the description. And if there are some changes made to the unit, then things are updated in real time. So if you make any changes, then the description is updated in real time. So this is all very new. It was put online in January. That's for B2C. Now, regarding B2B website, when the... This will be online in February.
But what we are seeing now is that since the seventh of January, when this new website was available, download times are four times faster, and now our Google referencing is much, much better, because until now, we would push on average 135-140 real estate programs. In the future, we're going to have thousands of housing units that will be pushed, and which means that we will be referenced in a much better way. I'm done. So hello again, everyone. I will now talk about our urban development and urban renewal business. To start with, I'd like to talk about the Les Magasins Généraux in Reims brownfield and the reclamation of this brownfield. So it all started in May 2025.
This is a picture, an aerial view, from May 2025. This is when the work so started. The delivery date is towards the end of 2026. We will have the new NEOMA Business School campus, the new ESAD campus, a new student residence, so with over 300 housing units that was acquired with the Banque des Territoires and the property company, and you also have a family housing unit. So I won't go into any detail because everything has already been made in the past, and you have the pictures on the screen. But what we are doing during this first phase, during phase one, is that... And this is truly innovative.
We have a new heating system, a new urban HVAC heating HVAC system, and using geothermal energy and solar panels that produce solar energy, firstly using the sun. 75% will be renewable energy, which will allow us to avoid 689 tons of CO2 in this neighborhood. People will benefit from this directly because their energy costs will be down 30%, and in the summer, they will also have the possibility to benefit from a cooling system in their housing units. So you have a constant temperature water loop, which means that you have water circulating throughout the neighborhood. So this is the yellow line on the graph.
So it's connected to the apartment buildings, and they can have access to either a high temperature or cold temperatures, and then you have heat exchangers. And within this loop, we also have an energy storage system. This is the cylinder that you have in on the screen. So it's a huge tank. This is actual water storage that comes on top of the water that you have in the loop, and this provides for a greater inertia in the system, which is very good in a mixed neighborhood like this one. Because it's you know, half of the year, you have commercial buildings and teaching buildings, where people will need to cool down their units. So no housing units, so will do the opposite.
So they're going to collect cool water from system and then inject heat into the system and vice versa. And we're also going to use heat pumps. So now this is the Toulouse or Bois-Guillaume brownfields and the reclamation project, so they are on the way. We are also working on a new brownfield project in Loos. That's the name of the town. It's close to Lille. So this is a reclamation project that was awarded to us by the Lille city. So 340 housing units are going to be built. We are aiming for a ÉcoQuartier certification. We're going to reuse the bricks.
Some of the buildings are going to be demolished, others are going to be reconstructed, and we're also going to restore the site. This year, 65% of the site and 39% will be basically grass or trees. Now we have this other project in Courbevoie, close to La Défense. 18,000 square meters of housing units, family housing units, so student housing, amongst other things. This is a project done together with La Banque des Territoires and held by Neoresid . It also allows us to have a public space, public park for residents, so 4,000 sqm . We also have a sport room, a medical facility, a gym, and it's a highly technical project because there will be several stories.
Now, regarding our commercial real estate market in 2025, a tough market, demand is going down again. Vacancy rates are up. In the Île-de-France region, vacancy rate is really high, 11.2%. Please also note that this vacancy rate includes the structural vacancy. I already mentioned this last year, and it's going up because it used to be 1.6 million sqm , now it's at 1.9 million sqm . It's almost one third of total vacancy, which is potentially good news, which means that we have a strong potential for converting those office buildings into housing or apartment buildings.
Obviously, there are some regulatory issues, but those are projects that will happen over time on a regular basis, and they're going to be good for the market as a whole. We also need to talk about new offers, so the building of new office buildings outside of the Paris area. The situation is quite good, as there are fewer projects and available office buildings, new buildings, approximately 480,000 sqm . And if you now have a look at future projects, we would have a, at maximum, 300,000 sqm within three years, which would be in line with market needs.
So, as of 2026, so outside of the Paris area, there might be a shortage in office building, which means that we could provide for turnkey projects, and this is actually good news for us. Now, regarding the Île-de-France region, so the Paris area, things are a bit more complicated because we have a 1,750,000 sqm available, and the demand is approximately 500,000 sqm . So you have a gap here, and things haven't really changed since 2024 when it comes to the building of new office buildings, and the market is getting more balanced. So now we have fewer projects that are being started, and this could have a positive impact on the situation.
Most projects now are within Paris and are no longer in the suburbs. So, the available new office buildings, especially in the west of Paris, in La Défense, so this is going down now. And if you think about the 800,000 sqm are going to be available within 3 years. Well, if you have a look at all those numbers, what you see is that the offer is going to be like consumed or used within the 3 years, and within 1 or 2 years, we should have new opportunities for new turnkey projects.
Clear. Since I'm talking about turnkey, there's something very important for us. If you look at our strategy, and that's for commercial property, is that, we finalize these projects only when they are sold or pre-sold. Now, if we look at 2025, now revenue EUR 248 million, therefore, a sharp increase from 2024. That's due to the Austerlitz project. We have EUR 168 million, tax, VAT included, and then the backlog is high, EUR 408 million. There's a decrease, though, due to the fact that there's revenue that's been eaten up. And, of course, we have included the new orders. Then Austerlitz, the project is developing nicely in keeping with our plan. Now, here again, this is the timeline, as you can see, past recognition and future recognition of coming revenue.
These are some photos for those who are going to be with us for the visit in a minute. That's a photo we took in September 2025. Now, this is a view of the building. This is what the train drivers will see on Line 5 when they drive their train below the building. That's the other side of it. As you can see, the building is not almost finished, but, closer to its end, if I can say. So you see the connection between the metro line, the train line, and the building. Now, if you're not with us during the visit in a minute, we've worked on this place, thanks to a special, thing that we did. That is, we have a special protection system that was built to protect the metro from objects that might have fallen, due to the construction, work.
So we could work also during daytime and not just at nighttime. And here's another view, a recent view of the building from the end of 2025. This is what the interior of the building, the patio, will look like. As you can see, we have sometimes up to 25 or 30 meters for the passageways there for the pedestrians, and we have a wood flooring as well, which is being quite used. Wood has been used in the building. So this year, we've also sold this campus that we're developing in Marseille, 30,000 sqm , as Nordine said earlier on, and the Clésence headquarters in the town of Compiègne. We're continuing with the logistics platform in Beaucaire. That's the second project of ours in Beaucaire. Now, Bertrand is going to talk you through the non-financial results.
Thank you, David. Hello, one and all.
Now, here's our CSR performance for 2025. The rating agencies, the general purpose, rating, agencies for ESG, rate us amongst the best companies in this industry. Now, if you look at climate, 2025 started off with the SBTi validation that said that the decarbonation trajectory was good, the objective being 1.5 degrees for the decade. And at the end of 2025, there was a major event, that is the CDP, Carbon Disclosure Project, gave us the best rating when they rated our climate, strategy. Kaufman & Broad is in the A List of the CDP now. We joined the list. We were on the list at the end of, 2025. Now, let's have a look at our trajectory to reduce, CO2 emissions. Look at the carbon content for each, square meter that's been delivered and produced by the group.
If you look at 2025, there's a decrease in our carbon footprint, and that's possible because we've now delivered on a number of our projects, and these include the projects that meet the new plans for 2025. And the new projects, as you can see, are included. This will be for 2028, 2030, and was again aligned on our objectives to reduce our CO2 footprint before the end of the decade. Rather than showing you complex graphs, the best thing is to show you pictures, photos of what we've done to reduce our carbon footprint. More than 1,000 units are being built in wood or timber. In 2025, there's a first project that was delivered, which meets the new regulation for the building permits that will be filed in 2031.
So that's the new law that we have met. There are other things that we're working on. The energy transition, we no longer use gas, and also we have more eco design, we have better layouts, and we use low carbon materials or sourced from nature. And then our transition and our impact are visible here. 85% of the square meters of the group in 2025 were on lands that on which things were built before as well, and we've managed to process more than 4,000 tons of hazardous materials. We decontaminate the soil, and that's really good for the group. We recycle, if you will, these lands. Now, let me talk you through the financial performance. Thank you, Bertrand. I suppose you've read the press release. You have the main aggregates that were published yesterday evening.
To cut it short, we're in line with the guidance that we gave you a year ago. Let us have a look at the revenue, up 5% or more rather, for the past 12 months, at EUR 1,136 million, which includes EUR 871 million from the housing business, which is slightly down over the past 12 months. And this decrease is due to a number of transactions that were postponed or for other reasons. Well, the projects were not good enough, so we thought we had to improve them, and sometimes the other reason is that we got the building permits too late. For instance, for Courbevoie, that David was talking about before, we've just received the cleared permit.
We thought these could have become could have materialized at the end of the year. Now, for commercial activity, we're growing. Commercial property, the recognition of revenue is in line with what we thought it would be, so no nasty surprise. Then, if we look at the gross margin, if you look at the other numbers, at EUR 222 million, 19.5%, that's the margin rate, which is rather good and quite in keeping with what we've done in the past, and in absolute value, growing almost EUR 14 million. So a growth in revenue, a bit more than 5%. Gross margin is growing as well and growing more than expected, which means that revenue is turned into profit. If you start with gross margin, that's the difference between the selling price and direct costs.
That is the price of land and also construction costs. We have good control of our selling prices, we sell quickly, and we sell at the right price, at the right place. William's in charge of marketing and the selling of these units, and he's talked about the tools that we use to sell quickly. But apart from that as well, we are really very responsive and work in the field. We have 150 projects that we manage daily, and we collect the data very quickly, and we make the decisions very quickly to adjust our prices upwards or downwards, by the way. This really explains why, at any moment in time, we can adapt and we can respond swiftly. We also have good control of land costs. Nothing new.
We always fight for the best price when we buy land, so that then we can develop the best products, and then the construction costs are under control. Gross margin, +EUR 14 million, and then if you look at operating expenses, 221... Oh, sorry, EUR 130 million. Therefore, a slight increase, but in absolute value, the increase is not as quick as the gross margin increase. So at the end of the day, that means that we have an operating income, EUR 91 million, therefore, up EUR 10 million, more or less, to reach a bit more than 8%. The guidance bracket was between 7.5% and 8% at the beginning of the year, so we're slightly doing better than the upper part of the bracket.
Gross margin, EUR 14 million, and operating expenses, they're growing, but not as fast as they could have, and therefore, EUR 10 million for the operating income, which means that the improvement in gross margin is turned into a good profit. Well, 75% of this is seen in the profit level. Then, if you look at current operating margin, operating margin is in line with the previous years. Nothing special to say about this, really. Then let us have a look again. The financial expenses are going down, but that's quite consistent because we've reimbursed the EUR 100 million PP.
Mechanically, there's therefore a decrease in financial expenses that you can see here are mainly financial expenses that include the non-cash financial expenses, which is the result of IFRS computing, the rents that are restated in financial expenses, et cetera, and so on and so forth. That means EUR 10 million, more or less. So if we set aside these aspects that are bookkeeping aspects, financial expenses would be equal to zero. Then if you look at taxes, we paid the normal tax, which mirrors our profit. And then, the earnings from associations is going down, and we have co-promotional offers, but fewer than we had in the past. So we have a better management of the projects we develop at present.
Then if we look at working capital requirement, WCR, which is the main element on our balance sheet, is still negative, -EUR 214.7 million, and therefore a decrease, but historically, it's always been low. If we were to look only at the WCR for the housing business, we would have a rate which would be at 12% or 13%. Usually speaking, we say that housing is a business that has a working capital requirement between 10%-15% in our company, Kaufman. So it's the same level, more or less. And then EUR 54.2 million , is a slight increase versus last year's, and therefore, even though the general environment is not really buoyant, our net income is rather good.
Let's continue with the balance sheet. Once we've looked at the WCR, we can have a look at our equity. EUR 238 million, and the shareholders' equity is stable from one year to the next. EUR 54 million is our operating income, and we've paid out dividends as well for 2024, paid in May 2025, to the tune of EUR 43 million. Therefore, again, quite stable. Then the debt, well, that's net cash, EUR 319 million. Therefore, a slight decrease compared to 2024, but still very high. We might have questions on that. Financial structure is therefore very solid, and with that, we can look into the future in a bright way. Then something else which is important, since we were talking about working capital requirement in WCR, there are inventories.
They're stable, EUR 377 million at the end of 2025. What's interesting is that the inventories on mature projects or products, that is six months before we deliver them, they represent hardly EUR 50 million, divided by two, in a period of a year or twelve months. It really shows that we know how to manage our projects, sell them very quickly, and be responsive. We have a good management of our inventories, and in the inventories, we have new projects that correspond to the selling activity of ours over the past twelve months. If we look at the financial structure, no more a gross debt. If I can say, we've reimbursed the EUR 100 million PP line in May. This is a non-issue because we have a net cash position, which is quite positive.
Should we need it, if tomorrow there's an opportunity, who knows? We have an RCF line that we can draw from, a three-year maturity. It's undrawn for the time being, and we could draw from the line when we want. And of course, we meet all of our covenants. Now, for your information, that's what Fitch said about us, the triple B minus, that is investment grade for Kaufman. It's been, I think it's been five years in a row. And Bertrand was talking about the CDP rating that we got in the top four. We're in the top four, so there's no difference, more or less. If you look at our non-financial performance, environmental performance, and financial performance, the two can go together, and this is what we're doing. Kaufman's been doing this for years.
Then WCR and financial debt, as you can see, our equity, shareholders' equity, is at a stable level. It's been the case for the past 4 years. And the payout or distribution, rather, policy is something you're familiar with. Our operating income is turned into cash. We convert this into cash because we have a good control of our WCR, and therefore, we can have a distribution or payout policy, which is good for the shareholders. In a general way, it's rather high, and it's something we do repeatedly over the past 5 years, and it even started before that, in 2016, in absolute values. You have the numbers on the slide. So what we can say for 2025 is that 2025 met our guidance.
In terms of profit level, the level that we've reached is very much in keeping with the past performance of the group. Yet, if you look at the market, the housing market was halved in terms of volumes over the past four years, and commercial housing units today is a market which is not buoyant at all. And the Marseille project that David was talking about was one of the only two projects that was signed off in 2025, which means that even though the market is a bit dull, Kaufman has a good performance, stable over time, and at the end of the year, we have a cash position, which is really good, and a land reserve, which is up 32,000 housing units, therefore more than five equivalent to five years of business.
The backlog, EUR 2.4 billion, including EUR 400 million for the commercial housing units, and therefore EUR 2 billion for the housing units, which gives us good visibility for the quarters to come. There we are. I'll hand over to Nordine again for the outlook. [Foreign language], Bruno.
Thank you, Bruno. So before we answer your questions, so as you could see this morning in the press release, we announced a turnover that will be stable in 2026, now comparable with that of 2025. Current operating income or profit margin of approximately 8%, and obviously the net cash should remain positive after factoring in the payment of a dividend for 2025. That will be obviously subject to approval by the AGM in May, and the dividend would be EUR 2.2 per share. So now it's time for your questions.
We're going to begin with the questions from people in the room, and we're going to ask you to raise your hand and wait until you have the mic in order to ask your question so that people online can also hear the question. And then we'll move to questions asked by people online. Marilyn Fonte, Bernstein. First question: regarding the building permits, it seems that there's a slight increase. How do you see this? Do you think that this is going to last after the municipal elections, or is this just because people are catching up on the permits that were not issued during the mandate? Also, regarding the Jeanbrun scheme, how long is it going to take to be implemented, in your view? It might be a bit more complicated than other fiscal schemes.
Do you think it will be implemented at the end of 2026 or starting 2027? So what are your assumptions here?
Now, regarding commercial real estate, apparently you're more optimistic regarding midterm outlook. Your order book is EUR 40 million, but then you have the Austerlitz project very soon. So how are you going to rebound with regards to your commercial business, and how is it going to impact your revenues in 2026? Well, thank you. Regarding the first question on building permits, as was said earlier on, the fact that things are gaining momentum before the municipal elections, in my view, is due to the fact that people are now eventually realizing that it is urgent to start issuing building permits again.
We've reached a low point. Things are going to last for some time. Not that we'd need to reach exceptional volumes anytime soon, and not that we're going to build 400,000 units next year. But people are now realizing that things have to change. And the part was seeing as being good not to be building any new units, but now, gradually, people are now perceiving this as being actually negative. Now, the fact that no new units are being built, it means that everyone is being impacted by this problem. Until now, those who had an apartment or a house were quite happy with their personal situation. They were against the building of new units.
But now you have new generations of people who have a unit, have a an apartment or house, they're now realizing that is bad for their own children, though. But no, when your child was 10 years old, you didn't care about this, but now that your child is 20 years old, this is becoming more of a problem. So people are seeing things differently, but it will take time. It will take some time before everything changes, and obviously, with this discrimination of the taxe d'habitation, this housing tax that hasn't been offset by the government, we'll have to wait and see how things evolve. Now, with this new scheme, you have this element, this LMNP status that is being kept.
It is robust. It is a proven scheme. There haven't really been any changes compared with the Pinel scheme. It's quite stable over time, and this is really good. So this scheme actually only means that real estate investment is now regulated by common law, and there are going to be ceilings, et cetera. So it's going to take time again before and this is being adopted, fully adopted by investors and by buyers. I do not think this will have a huge impact on the housing orders, but not immediately, but over time. But one of the positive aspects of this scheme is that it's not going to lead to major price increases.
Now, for those who've been listening to us, say, for some time now, I’m really against a scheme, any scheme that will turn a housing project into pure investment projects. Because, you know, we used to have customers, not, I mean, not us, because people buy government, but they actually buy housing in this new day. But, so you know, they—you would have other companies, you wouldn't have any architects, and what they would sell were products that were similar to life insurance, so really, you know. And, buyers wouldn't even go and see where the units were being built. And this has had a very negative impact on the price of land, et cetera.
I think it's really good that this scheme is no longer there, and this new scheme is much, much better because the quality of the housing products is much more valued. It's about valorising revenues and also investing. So not just about taxes. Now, when we built office buildings, we only built office buildings once we've sold the projects. So we're going to continue and look for the right customers. So be it Austerlitz or the Marseille project for the EDF head office. Well, in both cases, the investors are going to use those buildings. They acquired buildings that they are actually going to use, which is very good for us because they're going to be owners, they're going to occupy the buildings also.
But you also have other types of investors that will then look for users. We almost no longer have a pure investors who will make an acquisition and then look for potential occupiers or people going to rent the building. So in We are seeing the situation evolve in France, so very little investment made in office buildings in the past years. Now, when it comes to EDF, now they need to mandate teams, they need to hire people. They know if you want to hire engineers, but also other kind of people, they are competing with other companies that have the possibility to host those people properly.
So you need to have an attractive working conditions, and the offices are part of those working conditions. So this is a market that can be developed, EDF as an example, but we are not going to do any projections because those kind of projects are rather large, and it means that we need some time to develop them properly. I think I've answered all three questions. Or maybe... Yes? Okay, good.
So no more questions in the room. So we're going to move on to questions from participants online. If you want to ask a question, please dial star one. So no questions for now. So, Bruno, are you going to be our host for the tour?
Yes, very briefly. We've organized a tour of the Austerlitz site.
You've seen a few views of the project. This tour will be headed by David, who is very familiar with this project because he's been the one promoting work on this project for the past six or seven years. It all started out in 2014, actually. That's a truly long-term project, and he will also be able to answer any questions you might have during the tour of this Austerlitz site. So we're going to leave at 10 A.M. A bus will take us there, unless you want to use the Metro Line 1. Obviously, you can do so if you want to. And we will begin the tour at 11, and end the tour at 12 noon. Thank you, everyone. Have a good day.