France the Next Housing Market to Collapse?

[Damian George]

In France, July consumer confidence fell 2 points to a new 21-year low of –48, worse than forecast. Fear of losing jobs is up 15 points but inflation fear is down 2 points. The French housing market is starting to match Spain’s… Q2 housing permits fell 15.3% y/y and housing starts fell 28.2% y/y. Even non-residential permits fell 20.5% y/y and starts, 13.3% y/y.

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[lewi]

hopefully not

 

[bhc]

No crash in France yet

The market has gone quiet. We have gone from 30 emails a day to about 2/3 a day. We are in the Limousin where prices have gone up about 500% over the last five years. Prices will come down but not on the scale of the US market.
If you stick to Cannes / Paris you can still make money on rentals.
But the days of buy and selling in France and making large chunks of money are over just now. Its time to sit tight.
Forget buying to let on 70%/80% mortgage you are just asking for trouble just now.

 

[Damian George]

Cant agree more.

Added to this - flight prices are crazy at the moment BA is looking cheap compared to easy jet and ryanair.

has anyone noticed this?

Also have to say BHC that our enquiries have fallen through the floor - lots of £2/3k transfers to pay the french mortgage or spending money buy no large clients to talk of. Normally this time of year we have 3 or 4 people a day asking to buy euros of 100k plus

 

[sextant]

Hi all,

I don't think the French housing market is about to collapse at all. More and more foreigners want to buy a property in France. They are charmed by the variety of landscapes and love coming in their French holiday house.
What's more with the decreasing train journey times and the cut off prices to go from the UK to France, they will definitely go on coming in France for a property !

For those who like precise data, the French property market became number one in 2007 by the volume of property sold to foreigners and next October promises to be busy in terms of property sales.

You can have a look on this Sextant Properties to find more info

 

[Damian George]

Hi Sextant

i like your French Property For Sale

I notice you recommend Moneycorp how do you find them?

 

[sextant]

Money transfer

Hi Damian,

We have been advising Moneycorp for more than 3 years now and we are very pleased with the service they provide to our customers: They always match a quote from their competitors.

 

[bhc]

I have to agree with you, we sold a house today and we have another sale about to go through.
Prices will not collapse in France, if you look at the latest Notaires stats they are still going up.
We still get a few emails every day, it is down from the 30/40 a day it used to be but then again most were day dreamers anyway.

 

[ady1231]

I have to agree with you, we sold a house today and we have another sale about to go through.
Prices will not collapse in France, if you look at the latest Notaires stats they are still going up.
We still get a few emails every day, it is down from the 30/40 a day it used to be but then again most were day dreamers anyway.

Hi;

You guys are Estate agents and should know more. I think it will be calm, but it will never collapse. The french market is highly regulated, and will always attract interests.

What do you guys think about The market in Old Nice?

 

[bhc]

In 2001 you could pick up apartments that needed modernised from about £25.000. Now they are worth a fortune.
The market is quiet in Nice/Cannes. Very overpriced. There are still plenty of very rich people buying there.
O% poss of a price collapse.

 

[sextant]

Nice

Hi BHC,

Can you tell me for which agency you are working?

Do you know our company: Sextant Properties?

 

[bhc]

Hi, we do not work with an agency. We are a French registered property company.
The houses we sell we own. France101

 

[estate]

Expect sales of new houses and apartments to fall to fewer than 90,000 this year, down from 127,000 in 2007 and again to 70,000 to 75,000 in 2009.

 

[sextant]

Real info about New build

Hi,

I don't want to let people believe what you wrote.

The real figure for new build in France is that 500.000 new build were sold in 2007 and it is going to be down to 400.000 in 2008. So it is only a 20% decrease. Moreover the government just announced that they are planning to buy 30.000 new build to help the small developers. So the figures will be more close to 430.000.
You can just my sources on bourse de Paris, action CAC 40, bourse en ligne, investissement : Boursorama

 

[erikko]

French properties are tempting but i think i have to save more to avail that

 

[DPA France]

From our point of view in the Dordogne www.dordognepropertyagency.com
compared to 2007, we have seen a definite slowdown in the numbers of buyers in our region. For UK buyers, this is largely due to the obvious factors such as difficulties in selling up back in the UK, dramatic shift in exchange rates, changes to the rights within the health system here for early retirees and the fact that cheaper properties have all been bought up leaving a mature market.

Prices are cooling down but this is much needed to restore some sanity in the marketplace anyhow. Prices have risen by 45% since 2002 here and this could not continue. One thing that remains fact however is that there is always a strong desire to buy here and many more people will be doing so over the coming years. We are currently selling strongly to Dutch buyers who seem to be well placed in the market and there has been a definite upturn in enquiries as people come to terms with the new market conditions and get on with making the move.

After all, most people move here for quality of life, so what's changed?