International Love Affair With France Remains

By Joanna Leggett of Leggett Immobilier.

The Notaires de France call it a fragile recovery, but the number of sales in France over the last 12 months has increased to 803,000, from a low of 777,000 in October 2024.

In our last briefing (Jan 2025), we forecast that sales at the year-end would rise further to be around the 900,000 mark and we see no reason to change this.

Obviously, much depends upon the political and economic stability within France and the EU, but internal enquiry numbers show that French property is obviously still popular with both domestic and overseas buyers in Q1 2025.

The Notaires estimate that country property prices have fallen by 1.7% in the last 12 months (3.6% in the Ile de France) but that they have now stabilised and are forecast to increase slightly based on “contracts signed”.

Meanwhile, the Notaires de Grand Paris say that the average price of property in the capital is set to rise by 2.1% in the year to May 2025, with price pressure “easing”. This is based on contracts exchanged, with an average price of €9,630m2, and is the first rise in four years.
Another positive sign is the uptake in construction of newbuild property – based on the three months to end Feb 2025 there has been a 14.2% rise in buildings started over the previous three months.

Demand is strong at both ends of the market. As to be expected the bulk of enquiries (over three-quarters) are for property below €350,000. However, more notable are the enquiry levels between €1-2m and at €3m+. This interest is not only in Paris, Alps and the Riviera but also in country estates, chateaux (where the demand seems insatiable, particularly from the USA and UK) and equestrian property. Indeed, we had 841 separate enquiries for chateaux in Q1, which shows the international love affair for heritage property in France.