New development property sales fall 24 per cent

The president of France’s property developers federation (Fédération des promoteurs immobiliers) has just announced that new development property sales for the first quarter of 2011 are down 24 per cent on the same quarter in 2010.

This falling off in sales is more than was expected and sales in France for new development properties by the end of 2011 will probably be under the 100,000 mark instead of the hoped for 110,000 figure. In 2010, 115,000 properties were sold in this category and 106,000 in 2009.

Monsieur Marc Pigeon explained that there were several reasons behind this considerable drop: the Scellier buy-to-let-scheme’s tax advantages are less attractive than they were in 2010; there is an insufficient supply of development properties; the improved zero interest loan scheme (PTZ+) is slow to attract first time buyers for new properties; prices have gone up for development properties as buildings have technical features which enable them to meet the lowest energy consumption rating (bâtiments à basse consommation) and interest rates (for the loan amount not covered by the PTZ+) have edged up.

Source: The Riviera Times