Brits still top property buyers

BRITONS remain the biggest foreign buyers of French property – but other nations are catching up.

A study by the Notaires de France on non-new-build property sold in 2009 shows Britons bought around 4,012 homes – 17% of the sales to foreigners. Italians came next (14%), then the Belgians (11%) and Portuguese (10%).

The figure is down on 2008 when Britons bought 8,030 homes – 24% of foreign sales.

This year Belgians and Portuguese saw their share of the market rise to their highest levels in ten years. The British part of the foreign sales market has dropped significantly from its peak of 40% in 2004.

In 2009, sales to foreigners accounted for 4% of the market compared to 5% in 2008.

In areas of France where at least 5% of sales were to foreigners Brits bought the most, apart from in the Alpes-Maritimes where Italians bought more.

Sales to foreigners, including Britons, were at their highest in the Riviera, Alpine skiing area Haute-Savoie, Paris, and south-west departments the Creuse, the Dordogne, the Lot and the Gers.

Other popular areas included the Côtes d'Armor in Brittany and the Manche and Orne in Basse-Normandie.

Notaire Patrick-Léon Lotthe, from Bailleul, Nord, said the drop in Britons was due to the low pound and the economic crisis – in 2009 Britons bought a third as many homes as in 2007. However he added that sales to Britons already in France had been picking up recently.

“Also, now the Euro is having some troubles, more British residents might start looking to buy here again,” he said.

The notaires registered a total 590,000 sales of non-new build property (to French and foreigners combined) in 2009, down 27%, from a high of 800,000 in 2007.