Demand for French country properties is at an all time high!

12 september 2020

2020 has certainly been an INTERESTING year for property sales at the high end of the property marketplace.

January and February saw sales of properties above 300,000€ higher than 2018 and 2019 with high demand from english buyers but also northern French, German and Belgian buyers who represent some of my most important customers in this region for secondary homes.

I had just said to a client at the end of February that i didn't know what was driving the market but fingers crossed the higher than normal volume of sales would continue when BOOM Covid arrives and I go from super busy to complete lockdown by the 11th of March.

And the market dies !!!.......

So.....No more visits for the next 6 weeks of lockdown although in the last two weeks I had a doctor on transfer from a Paris hospital to a hospital in the south and all masked up we did visit properties after face timing to discuss his exact requirements. In record time he found his dream home and I was happy to have matched him to the right property and it gave me confidence that my work life would continue soon and I could resume doing what i love!

The real estate business can be volatile with european and international buyers susceptible to the movements of world markets, changes in fiscal policy and also national government policies regarding overseas investment. And now we have COVID which arrived with a bang and has certainly changed the business landscape worldwide in a matter of months. With all the doom and gloom in the media I really didn't know which way the market would go after we came out of lockdown.

I was surprised!

I didn't expect the unprecedented demand for country properties with privacy, gardens and swimming pools!

Enquiries started very slowly after our lockdown in France finished on the 11th of May and by the end of June it was obvious that July and August would be very busy months visiting properties with clients. In the last week the majority of serious buyers have been French, mainly from Paris and northern France looking for property where they can isolate beside a swimming pool in a warmer climate should the need arise with this virus or another like it in the future. Those clients alongside the clients from the region who are in the process of everyday real estate transactions; upgrading to larger properties or downgrading from large properties for older clients and also deceased estates means the market is performing at almost normal levels.

La vie normale va continuer !!

It will be interesting to watch the market over the next few months which are traditionally the busiest of the year. September and October are also beautiful temperature wise. Early September see's temperatures drop from the mid thirties to a comfortable 25 to 30 degrees as the wine harvest (vendage) begins and the vineyards fill with pickers and the roads with tractors towing huge loads of ripe grapes. I am not alone in this being my favourite season with perfect weather and this is the time when many buyers choose to begin their property hunt !!

If you are thinking of selling your country property please do not hesitate to contact me and have a chat about how I can you assist you to match your property to qualified buyers! And .....If you are a buyer looking for your dream 'South of France' property I am happy to share my real estate expertise and passion for this wonderful region with you and help guide you in your search for that 'extra special ' property !

Stay safe everyone and happy house hunting in the south !!!

All the best

Robert