Real Estate on the Côte d’Azur

Business is picking up

The first edition of Property 0683 Nice Matin, a 100% virtual real estate exhibition, took place in April.
As part of the exhibition, top professionals in the market participated in a conference at which market trends for the 1st quarter of 2021 were discussed. Here is what we learned…

By Laurent Merengone

To start off the conference, Pascale Platret, chief delegate from MLS Côte d’Azur, provided an analysis with exact figures. MLS is an association of real estate professionals; 560 agencies from Fréjus to Menton are members. More exactly, MLS includes 463 agencies from the Alpes-Maritimes department. All the agencies exchange information on the properties for which they are exclusive sellers, so data extracted from the MLS database provides a true view of market trends.
MLS transactions account for 40% of all sales in Alpes-Maritimes. Normally, about 10,000 properties are up for sale via MLS; about 5000 new properties are added each year. If we look at sales agreements signed since the beginning of the year, we can see that results for the first quarter of 2021 are similar to the year 2019 (before the health crisis) and higher than in 2020, even though we were under a strict lockdown beginning in March of this year.
Since 1 January 2021, more than 2100 new properties have been put up for sale on MLS. Nine hundred thirty sales agreements have been signed—meaning that the sales of such properties will soon be finalised—and 1090 offers have been accepted. Figures were similar last year during the same period.
The market is clearly soaring, and there are not enough products. This penury of properties for sale may be explained by the fact that turnover was much longer in 2020 and much shorter this year. Nowadays it is not unusual for an apartment or house to ‘sell’in just three days, if we look at the time between being put on the market and the owner accepting an offer. Average prices have risen slightly in Alpes-Maritimes, which also indicates a strong market.
Sandrine Durbano, from Century 21 in Nice, confirmed that the rate of sales is identical to 2019, and backed up her statement with national figures supporting the trend. She also noted greater interest in different types of properties. For example, Century 21 saw demand for houses with gardens increase by 146%, clearly a consequence of the frustration many French people felt when they were unable to go outside during the lockdown.
According to Marc Wyler, Fnaim manager in Nice, a strong recovery made up for the 80% drop in business during the first lockdown in March and April 2020. In the end there was even a 7% increase in annual sales volumes, and prices in Nice thus remained at a high level.
Mikael Maillet, real estate broker at Cafpi, concluded by saying that he also had noted an increase in activity since the beginning of this year, but reassured us that banks would keep credit rates low. That is good news, since people buying their first homes will continue to have access to the market.
Clearly, the health crisis has not discouraged the French from investing in real estate, confirming once again its value as a ‘safe haven’particularly in uncertain times.

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