span style="color: #353535;">Over three-quarters (77%) of notaires in France think that now is a good time to sell rather than buy property in the country. Among the others, 19% advised buying and 4% said it was better to wait to see.

span style="color: #353535;">The unusually high ‘sell’ figure cited by the Immonot website – run by a firm that works in close collaboration with the notaire profession – is linked to factors such as rising mortgage rates, making high-priced property less accessible. 

span style="color: #353535;">The average interest rate in France is now 2.65%, compared to 1.84% at the start of the year. Almost half of notaires said they were expecting to see price drops in the next two months, while another 45% thought they would remain stable. Just 6% thought that French property prices could still rise.

span style="color: #353535;">Despite this, Immonot is not predicting a property price crash and said property remains a good investment in the main in these economically uncertain times. The website predicted a long, slow ‘erosion’ of prices, along with a slowing down in the number of sales.

span style="color: #353535;">In Paris property prices are 2.7% lower than a year ago, confirming the tendency, which commenced with the pandemic, for Parisian residents to continue to move out to the provinces.