It has been a year of contrasting halves with a surprisingly busy January followed by a difficult few months. The market only really picked up in May and June, says the report from Home Hunts which specialises in finding luxury homes and investment properties throughout France, Monaco, Geneva, London and New York.
The firm is cautiously optimistic about 2015 and believes that the market should remain buoyant, particularly in the most sought after areas of France, however buyers are looking for a deal and sellers have to be realistic about prices.
‘We expect confidence to slowly continue growing in 2015 as people discover the flexibility of prices. The French General Elections in 2017 is likely to result in a change of government and savvy investors are taking advantage of the current favourable buying conditions to reap rewards later,’ said Tim Swannie, director of Home Hunts.
‘2014 was such a year of contrasting halves so we cannot predict a huge rise in property prices for 2015 but, we can confidently say the market should remain buoyant, particularly in the most sought after areas of France,’ he added.
For Home Hunts, 2014 started strongly and January was the busiest month for about four years with 16 sales agreed and lots of interest from international buyers. ‘Bearing in mind that January is usually one of the quietest months of the year in terms of sales, we took this as a sign that things were set to explode,’ explained Swannie.
But the market slowed. In France it started to pick-up again with busy months in May and June and this momentum continued into the summer months and with a lot of interest in July and August. The second half of the year saw even more interest, especially from UK buyers because of the strength of the pound verses the euro and this continues to be the case.
‘We have had buyers from all over the world including China, the Middle East, America, South Africa, Brazil, and Russia as well as all over Europe. We have also sold a huge range of properties such as apartments in Cannes and Paris, vineyards in Bordeaux, a chateau in Provence, waterfront villas on the Riviera and chalets in the French Alps,’ Swannie pointed out.
He also explained that there has been no real pattern in nationalities of buyers, areas or property styles that our clients have been looking for, but the common factor in all of the purchases has been that every single buyer has been looking for a 'deal'.
For example, clients are taking advantage of the current French housing market to find their dream home, in their dream destination, at their dream price. The properties selling at the moment are those which have either been put on the market very recently and have been aggressively priced to sell, or those where the owner needs to sell and is willing to be flexible. If owners are not willing to take an offer then their property will sit on the market for a long time, according to Swannie.
He gives as an example a stone built property in Provence with owners that needed to sell for financial reasons. ‘This beautiful home in the countryside has several hectares of land, swimming pool, tennis court and even a helipad. The asking price had been slashed by just over 20% to find a buyer quickly and the new price was very interesting indeed,’ Swannie said.
‘We immediately mailed and called our client base to let them know about the deal and received over 60 enquiries within 24 hours. Just 24 hours after that, the house had been sold for the full asking price. The buyer had flown over by private jet the very same day and immediately agreed to buy the property,’ he added.
Looking ahead to 2015 the firm expects confidence to slowly continue growing since many savvy buyers are seeing there has never been a better time to buy in France. ‘Interest rates and the exchange rates are a big contributing factor but the flexibility of prices is really the main reason that we believe there hasn't been a better time to buy here for many, many years,’ said Swannie.
‘The French general elections are coming up in 2017 and there is no doubt at all that there will be a change in government at that point. We are already being contacted from a wide range of developers, savvy investors and private clients, who are looking to take advantage of the favourable buying conditions and low prices now, in order to reap the rewards in a couple of years' time,’ he pointed out.
‘So, cautiously optimistic is our phrase of the moment. Our focus is to continue hunting out bargains for our clients and our French team has become very adept at finding these special gems. So we will continue to hone our skills and try to bring people what they really want,’ he concluded.
