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Property news in brief - August 2018

Relevant property news in France from this month...

Mortgage rates below 1% for 10 and 15-year loans

Mortgage rates fell to below 1% in early July with brokers Cafpi saying lenders were asking 0.75% over 10 years from some buyers with good profiles.

Low rates were June’s trend with 0.89% possible over 10 years and buyers looking for longer-term loans paying 1.18% over 15 years, 1.37% over 20 years and 1.61% over 25 years (insurance not included).

But as banks vie for business, the low rates continued into July with 0.95% over 15 years, 1.25% over 20 years and 1.3% over 25 years. Cafpi’s deputy managing director Philippe Taboret said negotiating low rates allowed buyers to borrow €210,000 over 20 years for €1,000 a month.

 

Workers will commute for 43 minutes for better house

Soaring Paris prices mean workers must juggle travel time and property prices and Ile-de-France residents said in a poll they would travel up to 43 minutes for work.

A study by MeilleursAgents showed that someone with a €395,000 budget working at Etoile could buy a 150m2 house 43 minutes away in Montsoult, Val-d’Oise, or a 74m2 flat in Clamart, Hauts-de-Seine. If they wanted a shorter commute they could afford an 88m2 flat in Houilles, Yvelines which is just 14 minutes away on the RER.

 

Waste heat from steelworks is used to power homes

Homes, offices and shops in a Lozère town are being heated by waste heat from the local steelworks, which give off enough energy to power 1,150 houses.

The ArcelorMittal plant in Saint-Chély-d’Apcher feeds 4.8MW of excess heat from its cooling plant for rolled steel into the town’s urban heating system. Some also goes to power the factory’s own needs.

In all, the project by Kyotherm and Schneider Electric cost €5.6million and uses ‘dead heat’ energy that would otherwise be lost to the atmosphere while also cutting fossil fuel use and CO2.

 

No rise in notaire fees as government pulls back

Fears that ‘notaire fees’ on property purchases would rise from 6-7% to a possible 8% have been calmed after the government pulled back from allowing departmental councils to raise the droits d’enregistrement tax which is the largest part of the fees.

It is set at at 4.5% in all but four departments, Indre, Isère, Morbihan and Mayotte where it is 3.8%. The prime minister had proposed raising this to 4.7%.

On a €200,000 sale it amounts to €9,000 and would rise €400 under the new limit. 

 

Dog-mess tenant must pay upset neighbour €10,000

A tenant who let her dog mess on the balcony of her flat in the 16th arrondissement in Paris has lost her appeal against being evicted. She claimed that fouling and smell from the balcony was due to pigeons.

The appeal court rejected her case and ordered her to pay €10,000 to the upstairs neighbour who had complained and took court action after repeated huissier visits.

 

Student rents vary from €185 to €1,400 a month

As students start the annual hunt for accommodation, a study has shown that rental costs can vary from €185 to €1,400 a month depending on location.

Rodez in Aveyron is cheapest with rents averaging €274 and starting at €185 while Bordeaux also starts at €185 but averages €480. The Century 21 study said the 13th arrondissement is cheapest in Paris at €332 but the dearest is the 8th, at €1,400.

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