What is available for the average rent...

The average rent across the country is €631 a month, including charges, which pays for a property averaging 45m2 – or about €14/m2.

In Paris, which made up 20% of all property rentals in 2017, tenants pay an average of €1,054 a month in rent and this nets a 31m2 flat – which works out at €34/m2 for the size of a large studio – while in the Ile-de-France suburbs the average rent of €876 is enough for a 38m2 flat.

In the regions, the average rent is €570 and this will secure a 47m2 property.

Person-to-person rental firm LocService looked at what the average France-wide rent of €631 would buy across the country and found wide variations, with Nancy in Lorraine the cheapest and offering the most space for the money – four times as much as Paris.

While €631 rent would be enough for a Paris studio of just 15m2, in Nancy it would secure a T3, a two-bedroom flat of 63m2, which would be ideal for two people sharing. Similarly in Rennes where it would pay for a 60m2 T3 flat.

Called colocation, sharing is an economical way to live and takes a budget averaging €426/month with more comfort than is found in a studio.

T3 flats make up one in five flats rented but T2 flats with just one bedroom are the most common, at 27%, just ahead of one-room studios on 26%.

Elsewhere across France the €631 rent would pay for a:

49m2 T2 flat in Grenoble,

46m2 T2 in Nantes and Strasbourg

45m2 T2 in Toulouse

42m2 T2 in Lille and Marseille

40m2 T2 in Montpellier

37m2 T2 in Lyon

28m2 studio in Nice

26m2 studio in Aix

Looking at tenants, 30% are couples with a budget of €884 for rent while single women make up 40% with a rent budget of €641. The remaining 30% men will budget €625.