2023-09-05 10:16:01
Real estate studies “Buy or rent” follow each other from year to year but are not alike. For its 10th edition, the barometer of the broker Meilleurtaux indeed reveals many cities where being a tenant seems financially more advantageous than becoming an owner. Blame it on credit rates that have soared without real estate purchase prices falling significantly while rents do not have a big margin for increase.
The study covers the 32 largest cities in France and is based on the purchase or rental of a 70 m² dwelling. It shows that it now takes 15 years and 6 months on average to make the purchase of a principal residence profitable. A duration that has continued to lengthen in recent years: it was 13 years and 9 but last year, 5 years and 8 months in 2021 and even one year and 9 months in 2019, its historical low point . What to wonder about the relevance of buying when we know that the average holding period of a home is around 7 years… If we rely on this criterion, only the cities of Mulhouse (where the purchase pays for itself in a year and 6 months), Saint-Etienne (3 years and 6 months) as well as Metz (6 years and 6 months) pass the bar. “If these cities are doing well despite the current context, this is quite simply due to a drop in real estate prices. A city like Metz, the price per m² has fallen by nearly 500 euros“, explains Maël Bernier, spokesperson for Meilleurtaux before continuing: “but these are also cities where rental prices have increased, allowing owners to make a profit more quickly despite the rise in rates, the rental for an equivalent property having increased at the same time”.
And by remaining below the 10-year mark, the cities of Limoges (8 years), Nîmes and Toulon (8 years and 6 months) as well as Rouen (9 years and 6 months) are added. Everywhere else, the financial calculation seems to favor the rental with payback periods that become enormous. Paris is untouchable with 30 years of return on investment but Nantes, for example, is displayed at 24 years old, Angers at 24 years and 6 months while Toulouse is at 23 years old, Bordeaux, Dijon and Lyon at 22 years old, Aix-en -Provence at 21 years and 6 months, Lille at 20 years and 6 months, and finally Strasbourg and Rennes at 21 years old to finish the list of “over 20 years old”.
“It is obvious that the real estate market has experienced significant upheavals leading to changes in dogma for buyers, emphasizes Mael Bernier. In many cities, which were once characterized by rapid returns on investment, the scenario has changed significantly. In fact, these towns in the vast majority of cases posted fairly low real estate prices or at least very much below those of other metropolises and thus offered their inhabitants access to property which was very quickly favorable to the budget, to the very net detriment of the rental. However, these cities have undergone a renewed post-covid attractiveness which has caused prices to jump, which explains the significant lengthening of the period of profitability holding.
Among the 32 cities analysed, the period required for the purchase to become profitable increased in 17 of them. For cities such as Perpignan, Le Mans, Aix-en-Provence or Reims, the profitability period of a purchase has increased respectively to: 10 years (compared to 2 years in 2022), 19 years (compared to 8 years in 2022 ), 21.6 years (compared to 8 years in 2022) and 19 years (compared to 3.6 in 2022). Still, the study necessarily avoids a whole series of aspects: there is in particular the question of being able to buy or not which has always arisen, to which is now added the question of the availability of the rental offer. Despite the tax problems, the issue of the DPE and the other hassles posed by real estate ownership, it remains a guarantor of security. The opportunity to have a roof which, in the long term, will no longer require the payment of monthly payments. A comfort difficult to measure in a purely financial way.
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