Read in Les Echos, by Anne-Sophie Vion, 2nd January 2024
Le Havre, in Seine-Maritime, takes the lead in the group of 50 largest cities in France with real estate prices up 15.5%, on average, over one year, as of January 1, 2024.
The year 2023 will have been marked by the shift in the fall in real estate prices across France. If the decline remains contained (-1.8%, on average, according to the “Les Echos” Best Agents indices as of January 1, 2024), many cities have recorded spectacular falls in barely a year. This is the case, in the group of 50 largest municipalities in France in terms of number of inhabitants, Mérignac (- 9.9%), Nantes (- 8%), Amiens, Limoges (- 7.8%), Nîmes (- 7.4%), Tours (- 7.1%), Lyon (- 5.9%), Besançon (- 5.5%), Paris (- 5.3%) and Calais (- 5% ).
Going against this downward trend, many cities are seeing their prices increase further in 2023. “These are often real estate markets where buyers are less exposed to the need to finance their project on credit, and therefore to the increase in the price of it. ", explains Thomas Lefebvre, scientific director of Meilleurs Agents.
Among the cities concerned, many benefit from a “tourism and leisure real estate” prism. They attract different types of buyers, particularly “young seniors”. The latter can finance their acquisition in cash after having resold a first home at a good price in a large metropolis where markets remain tight and expensive.
“Where the concentration of inactive people, in particular retirees, versus active people, is the highest,” confirms Loïc Cantin, president of Fnaim (National Real Estate Federation), “prices are holding up. It is observed by the sea, in the mountains and in certain countryside. » Added to this, with some exceptions, in municipalities which are becoming more expensive, are the advantages of a growing demographic and property prices that are still attractive, in relative terms.
The powerful appeal of the seaside
From this point of view, the coastline or its proximity, in particular the Normandy coast , is the big winner of 2023. The phenomenon of coastal erosion, which spares no French shore, seems, for the moment, to have only little impact on the French enthusiasm for owning property and living by the sea. Le Havre thus takes the lead in the Top 50, increasing by 15.5% over one year, as of January 1, 2024. The average price, at 2,338 euros per square meter, however, remains below the national average (3,923 euros/m²). Fifteen kilometers from the seaside, Caen sees its prices increase by 8.9%, to 3,199 euros/m².
In the southwest, in Charente-Maritime, the coastal town of La Rochelle saw an increase of 6.1% over twelve months, to now 4,737 euros the average price per m². Very popular, this town has shown rapid growth in sales prices for several years. Since mid-October, it has also been one of the cities reclassified as tense zones , which allows property candidates to be eligible for a zero-interest loan to finance their purchase there.
Still in the Top 50, this time on the Mediterranean coast, in the Var, the port city of Toulon ended the year 2023 largely in the green: + 7.6% to 3,533 euros/m², as well as Béziers, in Hérault, some 20 km from the seaside, increased by 6% to 2,085 euros per m².
Outside the Top 50, other towns on the coast or nearby such as La Seyne-sur-Mer (+10.4% increase in apartment prices in 2023), Royan (+5.9%), Hyères ( + 4.3%), in Corsica, Bastia (+8.2%), Ajaccio (+ 8.2%), and in Brittany, Vannes and Lorient (+ 3.4%) benefit from this trend.
Outside of coastal areas, medium-sized cities , in economically dynamic regions, and often close to large metropolises, are still riding the rise. In the Top 50, this is notably the example, in Sarthe, of Le Mans (+7.6% in 2023 to 2,042 euros/m²) and, in Cher, of Bourges (+10.6% to 1,787 euros /m²).
Among the smaller towns, we can also cite in the Pays de la Loire, and regarding apartment prices, Cholet, Laval and Saumur (+ 7.6% in 2023), in Center-Val de Loire, Chartres (+ 5 .7%), Blois (+ 5.4%), in New Aquitaine, Mont-de-Marsan and Dax (+ 5.9%), Arcachon (+ 4.8%), in Savoie, Chambéry and Aix- les-Bains (+ 5.3%) and in Hautes-Alpes, Gap (+ 5.2%).
“We are observing real territorial changes,” comments Corinne Jolly, president of PAP (Particulier à Particulier). Families are moving away from large cities like Paris, where professional opportunities and income levels are no longer enough to compensate for the problem of housing prices and degraded quality of life. » As an alternative to the Parisian suburbs, households are opting for cities offering a lifestyle similar to the capital (schools, health, shops, etc.) but for property prices two to three times cheaper.
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