professionals do not expect a revival of the market in 2024

After a difficult year in 2023, interest rates, in particular, remain too high for a majority of French people and remain a barrier to buying, according to a survey by Laforêt Immobilier.

The network of agencies has just published a survey in which it appears that the French still want to acquire property or invest in real estate as much as before. Immobilizing it remains, like gold, a safe haven.

The problem is the high interest rates which remain, for a majority of French people, still the main obstacle to purchasing. In this survey, 64% of them declared that they could question their project because of the high cost of credit. And for good reason, for a 20-year loan, rates have increased by two points on average this year, going from 2.3% to 4.3%.

And according to professionals, there will be no widespread drop in rates before the summer. And if there is a drop, it will be minimal; professionals are instead counting on stagnation. In this context, Laforêt Immobilier therefore believes that we should not expect a revival in the market in 2024. The conditions of access to credit have become somewhat more flexible, but that is not enough to revive the market. According to the Banque de France, the granting of new loans has fallen by more than 40% in one year.

Laforêt’s study, however, notes that young people, between 25 and 34 years old, are a little less discouraged by this difficulty in obtaining credits. And if we are to believe the banks, they should however be a little more flexible next year and accept more files than before.

The French are investing in “energy sieves”

Property prices are falling in some areas. Indeed, faced with buyers who are hesitant or disappointed by the banks, sellers often find themselves forced to review their pretensions if they want the transaction to go through. And this drop in prices should therefore help to unwind the market a little.

We note that buyers are turning to “energy sieves”, that is to say towards those properties which present poor energy performance diagnostics (DPE). Often these properties are sold at a discount because the owners, who cannot afford the renovation work, are looking to get rid of them and there are many offers on the market. According to Laforêt Immobilier, these energy strainers are becoming a real alternative for households that are on a tighter financial footing.