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Focus on the real estate market
 Status
of the Real Estate on the Riviera for the first semester of
2006
Overall stabilisation of the prices
After several years of steady increase, the prices in the
old-property market have shown a tendency to stabilise
during 2006, within a market having a wider offering
nowadays.
According to the French Riviera Real Estate Observer and its
released statistics
on the activity of the first semester 2006, the average
selling price of the old properties (reselling) within the
sea-side area of the Riviera was 3,655 €/m². The number of
transactions did increase by 4% and the average selling
price got higher by 11% compared with last year.
Those average figures which seem to be very positive are in
fact hiding a more complex situation.
On one hand, the increase is mainly due to the second
semester of 2005. This is especially the case for the area
of the urban metropolis of Antibes Sophia-Antipolis and also
for Nice.
On the other hand, the price increases are mainly affecting
those areas which are the cheapest –the local customers are
now considering districts that they used to neglect
beforehand, and at the high end of the price bracket: the
rich customers do not hesitate to pay the price for
exclusive properties being of irreproachable quality.
On the contrary, the real estate experts do reckon that most
of the offer – the middle-price properties – is usually
overrated nowadays: a significant number of landlords are
still anticipating on expected higher prices to come, which
are not increasing at all: too expensive for the local
customers, those properties are also not attractive to the
foreign wealthy buyers which expectations in terms of
quality for the money and location ratio cannot be met. As a
result, the customers are unhappy, the transactions are
endless and the offer gets bigger for a fewer number of
buyers.
Should you consider the fact that the housing loans are
getting more expensive also, it all leads to an overall
stabilisation of the market prices.
Statistics from the : Nice Côte d’Azur Chamber of Commerce –
French Riviera Real Estate Observer
CANCA : +20% on the 2BR
According to the logic here above described, the area of
the Urban Metropolis of Nice Côte
d’Azur (CANCA)*, where the prices are still under the
average of the department, experienced the highest increase
: + 16% between the 1st semester 2005 and the 2nd semester
2006
(opposed to 10% average on the other areas of the
department). But 14% were gained during the end of 2005. The
recorded price increase over the first six months of 2006 is
just below 3%. All of this is happening on a very active
market: the number of transactions increased by 11% compared
to the activity of the first semester of 2005. The offer was
pretty much stressing on the prices of the 2 bedrooms
properties, which increased by 20% to finally stabilised at
3,057 €/m².
*CANCA : Nice and 24 nearby townships, from Cagnes to Cap
d’Ail up to Vence, Castagniers, Tourette-Levens, Eze.
New properties starting at 5,408 €/m²
In the new properties market as well, some discrepancies
between the supply and the demand are such that the offer is
getting restructured;
During the first semester of 2006, the apartments purchased
by the developers themselves have been bought at the average
price of 5,100 euros (+12% increase in a year time). The
number of transactions did not increase significantly (20
additional sales) while the number of apartments for sale is
increasing by 19% (306 additional apartments). The inventory
is getting bigger
(Additional 624 apartments). The average price of the 2,481
apartments available in July is set at 5,408 €/m². |
