Perhaps the house in the country is already finished. While the health crisis finally seemed to be behind us, cities and suburbs are once again attractive. According to a study by real estate website PAP, revealed by Capital, home searches are now primarily focused around major cities.
Since 2019, the demand has already spread to large cities or to the immediate suburbs of the economic zones (Paris, Lille, Toulouse, Lyon). And while searches in the countryside and mid-sized cities have boomed during the Covid crisis, the balance is once again tilting in favor of the big cities. “After more than two years of the health crisis, we are seeing a kind of return to normal in the home selling market,” notes Grégoire Bertou, director of studies at PAP. If the capitals are once again praised by future buyers, the health crisis on the other hand has strengthened the attractiveness of the French for the single house. While the share of homes made up 58% of PAP user searches in 2019, it now stands at 62%.
Seine-et-Marne, the biggest winner
In order to analyze the effects of the health crisis on the home sales market, PAP compared user searches from 2019 to those in 2022. The results were surprising to say the least. While we might have expected strong demand for rural or coastal areas, cities remain attractive. Of the ten divisions in which research has progressed the most since 2019, 9 are located in a large metropolitan area or in the immediate suburbs of economic zones. Grégoire Berthou recalls: “During the health crisis, remote work proliferated and the search for rural areas proliferated. But in most companies, remote work is now limited to a maximum of two or three days. This gradual return to the office forces most employees to target nearby areas. From their job to inspect their homes.
Seine-et-Marne dominates the top 10 departments with home searches increasing the most between 2019 and 2022 (+49.2% of searches compared to 2019). This allure can be explained in particular by the great variety of offer available in the largest province of France. Seine-et-Marne benefits from an efficient public transport network that attracts Parisian workers looking for space. The other divisions in the Parisian Outer Crown, Evelyn (+16.9%), Eason (+15.9%) and Val d’Oise (+23.5%), also chart their game. “With the popularization of remote work, home-office trips are fewer in number and many French are willing to spend time on the move two to three times a week to increase the surface area of their homes,” comments Grégoire Bertou.
The Paris region is not the only region benefiting from the impact of telecommuting. Departments of Haute-Garonne (+30.7%), Rhône (+24.5%), Gironde (+16.7%) and Nord (+22.5%), comprising the country’s major employment pools, also saw their home count explode. If Haute-Savoie’s presence in the top 10 might come as a surprise, it is largely explained by its proximity to the Swiss city of Geneva. Pyrenees – Orientales (+ 17.2%) is also a particularly attractive department, but for a completely different reason: “This department has a particularly high immigration rate, and this can be explained by the presence of many retirees who come to settle in a sunny area, which is still cheaper Much more than the Cote d’Azur,” says Gregoire Bertheau.
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