french property

"People with French property to sell should stop asking for 10% more each year" says one industry expert in France. He says that sellers on this side of the channel should take a leaf out of our UK neighbour's book.

A recent appeal for realism on Rightmove.co.uk asked sellers to reconsider their asking prices in light of a faltering housing market to avoid stagnation.

If owners continue to demand unrealistic prices for their properties,he says,the French housing market will be exposed to the same risk.

MORE of the same old story today from France 24, the French based international news TV channel.

House prices in France "are easing" or "stagnating" according to their report while some other european countries are seeing brutal drops.

SOME of the highlights from an article in The Connexion newspaper today indicate that house prices in the Dordogne are dropping faster than the INSEE or French government would have us believe.

The President of the FNAIM in the Dordogne says that asking prices are coming down by, he speculates, as much as 20%.

PURCHASING power has become one of the main concerns of the French. It's a sensitive subject, statisticians and households do not necessarily see things the same way. While the French are convinced that their purchasing power has declined, the National Institute reported a marked increase over 2007.

PROPERTY prices in France as a whole were found to experience slight corrections here and there but overall the housing market remain stable.

And there are no signs on that horizon that this situation will change, according to seloger.com in the latest edition of its monthly price barometer.

French property prices were found to have slowed in areas that had seen increases and were even seen to increase in places where prices has stalled.

REUTERS - A French Government memo out today reports a drop of 28% in the sale of new houses in france for the first quarter.

The stock of new properties for sale in france is at an all time high according to the french Ministry for Ecology and Energy.

Just over 26,700 news builds were sold in France in the first quarter, 27.9% less that the same period in 2007.

From the second quarter 2007 to the first in 2008 the number of new houses sold was slightly more than 117,000, a drop of 10.3% on the same period a year before.

The Dordogne features among the most popular areas for french property in 2008.

According to this article in The Times the property market in France is "buzzing" at the same time as the Spanish and Irish markets are in free fall.

Despite the love-hate relationship between the British and the French, people feel at home there.

Sterling rose slightly this week after a smaller than expected fall in UK retail sales and factory orders suggested that the B of E may put off cutting interest rates in coming months as it tackles rising inflation risks.

More and more people are now looking towards France and particulary investment in French property as a way of spreading their assets and minimising financial risk.

In a recent blog post we talked about the Bank of England's gloomy forecast for the British economy over the coming 18 months.

But entrerprising Brits have come up with a solution and, at the same time, coined a new acronym.