Property in France has fallen in price by as much as 20% in some areas over the last five years.
The recent hikes in property taxes and a continuing uncertainty about the market mean that prices could drop still more.
In the resort of Biarritz, prices are said to have fallen by 5-10% and village properties in the area by 15 – 20%, according to the Emile Garcin estate agency.
Price drops have hit even along the Riviera, according to Le Monde.
In nearby Saint-Raphael, property prices have fallen by more than 20%, bringing the average cost of a house there now to €500,000, according to a recent survey of holiday home prices.
Bernard Drouvin, the head of Brittany’s association of notaries, said falls had exceeded 20% in some areas. One notary there said fewer young French couples care to buy second homes as their parents had done, partly because of the higher divorce rate.
Foreign investment in property has slowed down considerably after the economic meltdown in 2008. Confidence has not returned, especially in the wake of sabre rattling by the Socialist government to reduce property prices.
Russians, who contributed to a property boom on the Riviera, now prefer to rent rather than buy, according to Le Monde. A notary in Lower Normandy said that the British left the market years ago and today nearly all buyers are from Paris.
Prices have not dropped in all parts of France, according to the survey. In Saint-Jean-de-Luz, a picturesque town in the Basque country, prices have risen by nearly 60% taking the average cost of a house there to €607,500.
