Property in France: Market report
According to recent reports, for the first time in 10 years the price of French property is starting to fall. Not by a great deal and not everywhere, but enough to make buying, selling or renting property an even more interesting exercise. In its April issue, the French economic journal Capital (www.Capital.fr) devoted nearly 30 pages to a recent and perhaps surprising phenomenon – the accumulating evidence that property prices are at last starting to fall. After 10 years of steady climb – by a total of 130% since 1997 – two independent reports and research undertaken by the magazine itself show that even by December last year, the price per square metre had fallen by an average 3% (from €3,367 six months earlier to around €3,316 per m²) across a broad spectrum of French properties. One of the consequences of the price rises that lasted up to the end of 2007 has been an overall slowing down of the market for both primary and second homes, as occupiers decided to say put, and potential purchasers found that the cost of buying property had risen from an average 3.8 to 5.1 years equivalent family income.
Government figures for the first quarter of 2008 show a dramatic slowdown, particularly in the sale of new-build properties, down overall by 27.9% compared with the same time last year, with three departments (Limousin, Lorraine and Auvergne) showing reductions of more than 60%. The country’s stock of new-build properties awaiting buyers now stands at 105,600 – an all time record.
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