An Oxand study of nearly 580 public high schools, a quarter of France's public lycees, finds 74% of building elements in good or very good condition, with roofs, windows and facades concentrating about 65% of prioritized works.
-- A comment from Oxand
Restoring every building element with a high works priority in France's public high schools would cost about EUR 11 to EUR 13 billion, taxes and fees included, according to a study published by Oxand, one of the leading Asset Investment Planning (AIP) software firm. That is 4 to 5 years of the budget France's Regions devote each year to works in their high schools.
The study draws on inspections of about 5,700 buildings in nearly 580 public lycees, the French upper-secondary schools for students aged roughly 15 to 18. That is 24% of the country's public high schools. The figures come from on-site inspections, not from a survey.
Several French Regions, which own and maintain public lycees, have inventoried their high schools over several years and keep those inventories up to date. These inventories are the basis of the study. Only national aggregates are published: no Region and no school is named.
Reading the figures
Every percentage in the study is computed in replacement cost: what it would cost today to replace each building element with a new one, such as a roof, a window or a boiler. A roof therefore counts for more than a door.
Strengths of the building estate
- 74% of building elements are in good or very good condition, including 23% in very good condition.
- Technical equipment is the least degraded. Only 19% of the replacement cost of electrical and safety systems, and 21% of heating and ventilation, is in poor condition, against 26% on average.
Areas for improvement
- 26% of building elements are in poor or very poor condition. "Very poor" means an element that no longer does its job, such as a roof that lets water in or a window that no longer closes.
- Energy is a separate question. 56% of energy-related equipment (insulation, windows, heating, ventilation) performs poorly or very poorly; 44% performs well or fairly well. A building in good condition can still use a lot of energy. The study measures the performance of the equipment, not energy consumption in kilowatt-hours.
Where the works concentrate: the building envelope
Roofs, windows and facades form the building envelope. They make up 50% of the replacement cost of elements in poor condition and about 65% of prioritized works. 33% of roofs and 30% of windows are in poor condition.
Floors, walls and ceilings follow the opposite path. They account for 26% of the cost of elements in poor condition but only about 12% of prioritized works. They are rarely a priority, so they stay degraded for longer, and they are what students and teachers see every day.
Works are prioritized with a works priority rank. It combines an element's condition with the consequences its failure would have on safety, on keeping the school open, on comfort and on the school's image. A badly degraded roof above a canteen has a very high works priority; the same roof above a technical room has a moderate one. In professional vocabulary this is called "risk".
When the envelope degrades, the rest of the building degrades with it: leaks, mold, heat loss. Replacing a roof or windows addresses three issues at once: safety, comfort and the energy bill.
What EUR 11-13 billion represents
The amount is the maintenance backlog accumulated today: the cost of restoring every element with a high works priority. It is not an annual budget, a plan or a catch-up schedule.
Set against the budget the Regions devote each year to works in their high schools, about EUR 2.5 billion, it equals 4 to 5 years. Spread across France's 2,408 public lycees, it averages EUR 4.5 to EUR 5.5 million per high school.
From inspection to the whole of France: 24% to 41% to 100%
The national figure is built in three cumulative steps:
- 24% of France's public high schools are inspected.
- 41% are covered by adding the estates extrapolated from the inspected data. In three Regions, a sample of inspected high schools was measured and the same ratios were applied to the Region's whole estate.
- 100% is reached by extrapolation to the whole of France.
This is why the national amount is given as a range. It will narrow as more local authorities measure their buildings.
"Roofs, windows and facades go from 50% of the cost of elements in poor condition to about 65% of prioritized works: that is where scheduling is decided, and a single works program addresses safety, comfort and energy," said Vianney Airaud, CEO of Oxand. "Measuring is what makes it possible to schedule works: which element, in which school, at what time. We are publishing these aggregates so that each local authority can compare them with the condition of its own estate."
Resources
- Full study, with charts: The condition of French public high schools
- Infographic (PDF): Download the infographic
- Press room, with visuals and the press release: Oxand press room
- Article: What the study shows, in plain language
About Oxand
Oxand, a leader in Asset Investment Planning (AIP) software space, helps owners of infrastructure and real estate decide where, when and how to invest for the future. For more than 25 years, it has combined asset-ageing models, consulting expertise and its software, Oxand Simeo, serving more than 100 organizations and more than EUR 100 billion of assets under planning in three regions: EMEA, North America and APAC. Learn more at oxand.com.
Source: Oxand, study on the condition of public high schools, October 2026, based on inspections of about 5,700 buildings in nearly 580 public high schools.
Contact Info:
Name: Vianney Airaud, CEO
Email: Send Email
Organization: Oxand
Address: 198 avenue de France, 75013 Paris
Website: https://oxand.com
Release ID: 89207817
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