Real estate 2020 in France: price evolution of an atypical year

Brittany, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and Pays de la Loire on the podium!

While the crisis made buyers hope for a fall in real estate prices, it is clear that sellers do not lower their price, on the contrary. Indeed, if we look at the real estate ads published for the year 2020 in the 10 largest cities in each region, we see that France has seen a rise in prices in all its regions, led by Brittany.

Armorica culminates at 14% increase to € 2.669 per m² in 2020 versus € 2.337 at the same time in 2019. An increase driven by its capital: Rennes. In fact, the city experienced a 15% increase.

It is followed closely by Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, with an increase of 10% (€ 3.559 per m² in 2020 compared to € 3.233 in 2019). The region experiences significant disparities, since it brings together cities that have experienced significant increase like Villeurbanne (+ 22%), and less dynamic towns, like Vaulx-en-Velin, whose prices fell by 5%.

If you feel like you want to take the Pays de la Loire had previously benefited from a fairly stable real estate market (+ 3,4%) between 2015 and 2019, the increase has accelerated this past year to reach third place in our ranking with a 9% increase in property prices. The region is pulled up by the city of Angers in particular with a 19% increase, one of the biggest increases of the year.

Hauts-de-France, Burgundy and Center-Val de Loire set back

Conversely, it is the Hauts-de-France which is experiencing the weakest dynamism : + 2% with € 2.208 per m² this year compared to € 2 in 161. Preceded by Burgundy and Center-Val de Loire with a 4% increase each.

It should nevertheless be noted that none of the French regions has experienced an overall price drop.

This resistance in ad prices despite the health context can be explained by several factors:

• Housing supply is becoming scarce
• Sellers remain ambitious in setting their selling prices
• The market structure is rebalancing: the conditions of access to bank credit for the most modest households are more difficult in 2020, which pushes the averages upwards
• The big cities remain important centers of attraction, with a dynamism which impacts the prices on the rise

Evolution of real estate prices in the regions between 2019 and 2020 *

* Methodology: price evolution observed on real estate advertisements on portals in 2020 and 2019 in the 10 largest cities in each region.
Please note, this does not apply to the selling prices recorded at the transaction level, on goods actually sold.

“In a year marked by the health crisis, the analysis of the prices of advertisements published on real estate sites in the large cities of France shows that average prices per m2 are not falling, quite the contrary. The owners remain ambitious and set high selling prices, especially in larger cities. However, we must remain fairly careful with these figures, because they are the prices observed for advertisements. We will have to wait and see how these sales projects materialize in real transactions. The greater difficulty in accessing mortgage loans, with more severe restrictions on the part of banks in 2020, should indeed impact prices downward. " explains Maxime Le Gonidec, BU Manager at Drimki.