People looking to buy property in France can negotiate, on average, 6% off the price of a house or flat – the biggest room for manoeuvre since 2010.
The figure, which refers to prices at the end of 2022, has increased around 50% nationally over the past year, according to the LPI-SeLoger barometer.
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The margin of negotiation measures the difference between the advertised price of a property when the mandat de vente is signed between the seller and estate agent, and the final sale price.
House prices tend to be more flexible, the statistics show, with a 6.4% margin compared to 5.6% for flats.
And you can knock the price down even more in rural regions, with margins of almost 9% on houses in Picardy, 7.42% in Lower Normandy and 7.18% in Nord-Pas-de-Calais.
Margin of negotiation in your area
However, the figures do not necessarily equate to increased purchasing power for buyers, warn experts.
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"Access to credit has become considerably more difficult for households in recent months," Michel Mouillart, spokesman for the LPI-SeLoger barometer, told Capital.
While in December 2021 people could borrow €223,896 on average, by December 2022 that amount had fallen to €194,020.
People’s buying power is also affected by a rapid increase in the price of property over recent years, especially 2020 and 2021.
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