Friday, April 29, 2011

French property transactions to rise in 2011?

According to a quarterly report from FNAIM, the estate agents' body, the number of French property transactions is expected to rise to 750,000 during 2011, compared with 850,000 during the best of the boom years and 570,000 during the worst.

Currently 50% of transactions concern existing property owners selling their property and trading up (or down?), and the remainder a mix of buy-to-let investors, second home buyers and first-timers - the latter given a boost by the revised PTZ (zero per cent loan) addressd to first-time buyers.

Estate agents fear a shortage of saleable properties as owners hold on in expectation of still higher price rises, which some commentators say may be of the order 5% to 6% by September this year.

Recent price rises for apartments have been highest in Paris, Lyon, Marseilles, Toulouse, Strasbourg and Cannes; and more 'modest' in Biarritz, Limoges, Nimes, Orléans and Poitier. Only Annecy, Chateauroux, Perpignan and Reims have registered price reductions.