Year after year, France remains a popular option for Qatari nationals to buy real estate. Whether it be Paris or the endearing allure of the Riviera there is something for everyone. However, buying a property as a non-resident foreign national in France can be tough to navigate.
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With its historic Haussmann-style buildings, broad avenues, expansive parks and museums, Paris’s 16th arrondissement has long been home to the crème de la crème of French high society.
Paris’s version of New York’s Upper East Side or London’s Kensington, the arrondissement is steeped in quiet charm of long straight boulevards and its beautiful townhouses, each cut from massive blocks of stone, no more than five stories high and characterized by elegant wrought iron balconies, soaring ceilings and large windows. The most fashionable streets in the north are Foch Avenue, Georges Mandel Avenue and Henri-Martin Avenue.
Though the interest rates are rising slowly in France, it is not expected to impact the luxury market as much as the properties are usually bought in cash. International buyers, especially from the Middle East are back and showing interest in Paris. The demand is steady, and prices have remained at a high level and are expected to stabilize in 2022.
Evidence of prime stock shortages in European residential markets is growing, owing to an increase in pandemic-induced sales.
In Europe, the resort, coastal, rural, and alpine markets are feeling the pinch, and this is expected to worsen in the coming months.
The strong sales rates we’ve seen in the last 12 months have been driven almost entirely by domestic buyers, once borders reopen and cross border transactions normalise, it is expected that stock levels will reduce further.
Strong demand, along with sellers’ reluctance to list their home until they know what they want to do next, has resulted in fewer listings in recent months.
With listings declining, existing inventory being absorbed and construction rates lagging, stock levels are becoming increasingly constrained, and inevitably it is the best-in-class properties that are selling fastest.
“European cities are also back on the radar of second home buyers and investors.”
What Next?
Prices are expected to increase across most European markets in 2021, with Lisbon, London, Geneva, Berlin and Paris to be amongst the frontrunners.
“The big question is will prices accelerate or will sales slow as a stand-off emerges between buyer and seller”
In the short-term prices look likely to track higher. Knight Frank’s latest Prime Global Cities Index which tracks the movement in luxury prices across 56 cities confirmed that 11 recorded double-digit price growth in the year to March 2021, up from just one a year earlier.