France: Property prices keep rising, but so do the sales
Despite an unstoppable growth in real estate prices in France, luxury properties keep finding buyers ready to settle in Paris or on the Côte d’Azur at any price.
France has always been a dream destination for many people, and rising property prices did nothing to put a dent in this popularity: the French newspaper Les Echos recently wrote a piece about the most expensive real estate deals being concluded in the country over the last three years, with lavish seaside villas and gigantic apartments in the most prestigious districts of Paris beating all records.
But these record-beating sales, no matter how much media attention they received, are just the most visible part of a wider tendency: Capital, a French economy-themed magazine, is being more prudent about the situation, warning about the possible formation of a real estate bubble if the prices keep rising, but still mentions the increasing number of sales being concluded, partially helped by the extremely low mortgage rates that can be obtained from French banks, with many buyers getting loans with an 1% interest rate.
This tendency called for reactions from the French authorities at the national and municipal levels, and has both good and bad consequences for investors or people planning to buy property in France for themselves. The bad one is the potential adoption of a law that would tax the detention of real estate that isn’t used as a primary residence instead of taxing realtor fees, and the good ones are that the bill on restricting AirBnB rentals, that loomed over the property of many investors, has finally been shot down by the French parliament, while people planning to invest in development projects could be interested in the potential for more high rise buildings being built in that country in order to outmaneuver rising square meter prices.
Still, in another article, Capital reports that some French municipalities escape the price hikes of the last two years, with cities such as Grenoble and Nice, both in popular touristic regions, registering real estate price drops for 2019 and the first quarter of 2020, which could open more business opportunities.
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