In the second quarter, prices per square meter fell by 8% over a year according to Foncia. Orpi detects a drop of 7% for the whole of the first half, and Laforêt of 4.1%.
Prices of old real estate in France are now falling sharply, according to barometers from agency networks for the second quarter of 2024, which have detected a “wait-and-see” attitude among buyers since the dissolution of the National Assembly.
In the second quarter, prices per square meter fell by 8% over a year according to Foncia. Orpi detects a drop of 7% for the whole of the first half, and Laforêt of 4.1%.
“This year, it started well in the first quarter and accelerated in the second,” Jordan Frarier, president of Foncia Transaction, told AFP.
The cause is the drop in credit rates, and “sellers who are a little more attentive and who lower their prices”. “All real estate professionals have said the same thing, saying that something had to be done because people could no longer keep up”, also asserts the president of Orpi, Guillaume Martinaud.
“There is a wait-and-see attitude”
According to Laforêt, house prices are falling more than apartment prices, -6.8% compared to -1.7%. “We can clearly see that the French, even if they still dream of a detached house, which is their ideal, they know that a house is a more significant financial investment” in terms of heating, exterior or fuel, explains the president of Laforêt, Yann Jéhanno.
This drop in prices is starting to stem the fall in transactions, the three networks note. The dissolution of the National Assembly decided on June 9 by Emmanuel Macron, which could bring the far right to power, has caused a “wait-and-see” attitude on the market, they also note.
“There is a wait-and-see attitude, but we feel that behind it, there is a desire to make a property purchase a reality,” says Guillaume Martinaud, warning however that “it is very disparate.”
“You will have a pause until we know which political program will be implemented and by whom.” “We have two opposing types of behavior,” explained Yann Jéhanno.
“Those who already have an advanced project, who want to take advantage of the rates that they have managed to negotiate currently with their bank (…), others who are putting things on hold” while waiting for the result of the ballot boxes and its consequences for the economy.
