According to a survey carried out by Explorimmo and IFOP, only 25% of households in France say that they have a property project at the moment
Attached though the average Frenchman may be to his home, he’s not prepared to invest in it at the moment. “The current economic climate, fiscal uncertainties, high prices, lower buying power.” These are the factors which, according to the latest Explorimmo/IFOP poll, are leading households down a path of prudence. 75% of those surveyed said that they didn’t have any property project in mind at the moment, even though have half of them say that they view the current property market favourably. This is a significant rise in optimism compared to last year when one third of French said that they were prepared to invest in bricks and mortar.
One element emerges as particularly significant: the loss of confidence of French in the actions of its government:
“74% of those surveyed believe that government measures announced recently with regard to the property market are not effective,” states property website Explorimmo. Thus, only 34% of French people think that government action will improve home building, 33% believe the rental situation will improve, 31% purchases and 28% sales.
Of those who are intending to put their money in property in the near future, 93% of them are planning on buying, with a slight majority of those (53%) intending to change their principal residence. The budget for this pocket of buyers has increased by 14% compared to the last poll, going up to €217,934 from €191,526 in January 2013.
Those in rental properties appear to have the most fatalistic attitude. 64% of people in the survey said that “being a tenant meant, above all, that they either didn’t have the means to own their own property (57%) or they didn’t want to risk putting themselves in financial difficulty (7%)”. The average rental price is €605, or about 33% of the average monthly salary.