Changing behaviour towards the real estate market in France

Between 1968 and 2013, real estate adapted to the growth of the French population. According to INSEE, the population has increased by 14 million, an increase of 28% (1). The amount of housing construction has accelerated. Between 2000 and 2016, 300,000 to 500,000 homes were built each year (1). While the main criterion for homebuyers was generally price, it has evolved well today. Indeed, the behaviour of real estate buyers in France has largely included new values and new priorities.

The new criteria for finding housing in France

The criteria of the buyers of housing concern the price of course, but also the neighborhood, comfort, location, the intensity of sociability, social and city policy, etc. While price was one of the main choices of whether or not to buy a home decades ago, it is no longer the first criterion of current buyers in France.

Today, the overriding criterion is location (1). Indeed, today, the French seem more sensitive to their budget dedicated to public transport and their travel time to school or work. This budget and proximity are not considered more important than the price of housing but is largely in its consideration.

The criteria for locating the purchase of a home also vary according to the age and status of each resident. For example, retirees are more interested in temperate climate sites to acquire housing rather than close proximity to schools.

One of the main criteria we understand today in the search for housing is also comfort. The modest populations that mainly inhabited the city centres in the 1960s are now moving to more remote areas of the city centre or even to rural areas. Quality of life is now a very important parameter to consider. The calm and tranquillity rather than the noise of traffic weigh heavily in the balance of the french of modest class.

Research that varies according to the typologies of the accessors

There are also two different behaviours between families, couples and singles. Families are looking for a location away from the city so that they can afford a larger-area dwelling with more rooms rather than a downtown dwelling that will provide these same criteria at a much higher price.

Couples without children and singles are more likely to be located in an apartment in the city and prefer proximity to local public places rather than the living area. Indeed, their expectations in their search for housing do not relate to the surface, the number of rooms or the possibility of having a garden. The main focus is on practicality, speed and proximity.

Each inhabitant, depending on his social class and his relational and professional status, carries out his constraints and criteria.

This leads to a very clear distribution of the French between rural and urban areas. To date, 80% of the French population resides in urban areas. The latter is still much more popular than the rural area.

Bordeaux buyers take back control of real estate

In 2018, the borders of Bordeaux such as the municipalities of Pessac and Mérignac are among the three largest increases in the volume of housing sales measured in 81 French cities over one year (2).

The Gironde real estate market has created a strong attractiveness around Bordeaux because it brings together many main criteria such as convenience, accessibility of public transport and offers a wide choice of access to higher education and employment.

The price of old homes rose by 18% in 2018 (2), while prices remained stable on new housing in the Bordeaux metropolis.

The differences between the budgets envisaged early for the purchase of a house and the prices charged still manage to meet. Only the city of Talence charges above-average prices. Buyers must therefore consider an extension to hope to become a homeowner in this city, according to a study by the real estate buying platform Bien Chez Soi.

Real estate in the heart of Bordeaux Metropole

On the Bordeaux metropolis, two behaviours also stand out. Instead, families prefer to set up shop in the municipalities of Pessac and Mérignac in order to promote the development of their children with the possibility of having a larger area and a garden.

Couples without children and singles in Bordeaux adopt the same behaviour as French couples without children and singles, i.e. they generally prefer to live in a dwelling directly in the city of Bordeaux in order to promote proximity to the places that punctuate their daily lives. Practicality is then preferred to comfort.

The real estate market,after suffering the crisis of 2008 like many other sectors, has undergone many changes. It has been able to rise well with the arrival of baby boomers. The growth of housing construction then increased substantially and the needs of the inhabitants in the same interval. The budget has gone from a first-tier test to a second-tier test. Location now settles in first place, closely followed by the comfort and quality of life provided by housing.

Sources

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  1. Housing conditions in France of INSEE and Public Statistics 2017
  2. The Gironde real estate markets of the Gironde Chamber of Notaries of 2019
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