The French government is having a fresh push on selling the property it owns, both in the country and abroad.
Prominent properties in New York City have been let lose onto the market, including a luxurious 18-room duplex at 740 Park Avenue, dubbed "Manhattan's richest apartment building" and once home to Jackie Kennedy and John D. Rockefeller and, until May, the home of the French ambassador to the UN.
It went to an American financier for $70 million.
Another grand and historic building on Fifth Avenue, priced at $32.5 million, contains 6 apartments in its 7 floors. It had been used to house French diplomatic staff.
France has the third biggest foreign diplomatic network after China and the US.
But the country’s desperate attempts to save €50 billion in the coming three years have pushed France into renewed efforts to sell.
In 2009 France made €12.3 million euros from selling property abroad. That figure reached €38 million the next year, and €58 million in 2011.
The best year to date was 2012 when a Chinese billionaire bought the French consul’s residence in Hong Kong for €52 million.
Although France has the highest concentration of state-owned property in Europe with many in prime positions, the many up for sale in France have been hit by a downturn in the property market.
According to government financial statements for 2012, property directly owned by the French state is worth €190 billion in total, although not all is for sale. But recent figures show that France only made €391 million out of the 1,234 assets it sold last year, well below the anticipated €530 million - its worst performance since 2005.
Currently nearly 1,800 properties are on the market.
