French property market up by 3% in April

APRIL saw a surprising increase in the French housing market compared to March 2009 according to the latest figures from the Federation of Estate Agent, FNAIM.

The Federation remain cautious in their reaction to the sudden upturn, having recorded a drop of 6.4% in the preceding twelve months.

The hike is thought to be the result of an increase in the number of transactions closed in the month of April.

The Federation is quick to point out that the market is down 7.4% on the same period last year and restated their belief that the market will maintain itis downward trendover the remainder of 2009.

This trend, however, is unlikely to be linear.

In other words, it is likely that there will be periods like April when prices will increase over one month on the previous.

FNAIM's original estimate still holds. House prices will decrease by between 5 and 10% over the whole of 2009.