No break in real estate prices in the regions! Quite the contrary. Housing is more and more expensive in France. “Average prices per m² reach unprecedented levelsnotes Charles Marinakis, president of Century 21 France. The threshold of 2500 euros has just been crossed for houses and that of 4000 m² exceeded for apartments“. As a result, the cost of housing has never been so high. For a house, you have to pay, on average, more than 290,000 euros and nearly 241,000 euros for apartments.
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Impossible to find a house in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region, in the south-east of France, below 500,000 €, for example. “It was the price of houses that tensed the market“says Charles Marinakis. Prices so high that the real estate business suffers. The number of house sales in France thus fell by almost 8% between the first half of 2021 and 2022, according to Century 21.
«The surge in prices in France is behind us in reality: a deceleration is underway, more significant on apartments than on houses for which the appetite of the French is still strong», points out Charles Marinakis. The opportunity for Le Figaro to take stock of the purchase of a house in France: what price? What surface? What is the selling time? (see below).
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Although the majority among buyers in France (44%), those under 40 suffer from this increased cost of real estate. As a result, the proportion of over 50s increased slightly (35% against 34% last January). These profiles, secondly buyers for the most part, often benefit from a larger personal contribution, made up largely of the proceeds from the sale of their previous home. A great asset in a context where banks are increasingly demanding in this area. The average down payment they require now approaches or even exceeds 20% (against 10% a year ago) for a monthly payment of 1,000 euros over 20 years.
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«This rate is equivalent to nearly 88,000 euros (!) in Île-de-France (against more than 71,000 euros a year ago) and more than 52,000 euros in the provinces, for the purchase of a main residence“, underlines Olivier Lendrevie, president of Cafpi, mortgage broker. Blame it on stricter credit conditions and higher house prices. Borrowers are thus forced to save more, failing to be able to borrow more. The era of easy money is well and truly over.