Make sure you sell before buying a new French property, say notaires
Buoyant market in some parts of France had tempted some to buy before confirming sale
Immonot warned that the rising prices seen in some parts of France during the spring have calmed
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After a quiet summer period in the property market, notaires have strongly advised making sure your French property has sold before signing to buy a new one.
A buoyant property market in some parts of France, especially in larger cities, had been tempting some people to buy before selling.
Doing so represented a gamble that, in the time before putting one property on the market and it selling, prices would have risen enough to offset some of the moving costs.
But the official notaires’ property website, Immonot, has warned that the rising prices seen in some parts of France during the spring have calmed and the volume of transactions dropped in the second quarter of the year.
One Brittany notaire told how one of their clients, who had bought a new house before selling, had to sell their house for a price which did not cover the bridging loan they had taken out to cover the transaction.
They had to make up the difference from savings.
Such cases are relatively rare, not least because French banks are cautious about issuing bridging loans for property deals.
The summer market downturn is not unusual in France, where some sectors of the economy, including the stock market and property transactions, usually slow down in the run up to a normally very calm summer holiday period.
However, the notaires said in late July that it was too early to predict what form the restart of the market in September will take.
There were contrasting situations in September 2023 and September 2024.
In 2023, prices continued to fall after the holidays, only starting to pick up again in December before peaking in April 2024.
In contrast, in September 2024 prices were only slightly lower than in June and then rose till May before starting to fall off.
“The uncertainty surrounding the effects of trade tariffs and the budget compressions announced by the government, are almost certain to provoke an economic slowdown which will have knock-on negative effects on the property market,” Immonot states in its quarterly review of property trends.
In a survey of members which made up part of the review, 88% of the notaires also recommended that sellers put their properties on the market now, instead of waiting to see if they can get a better price later.
