Albane Leprince 13:32 p.m., January 16, 2024

"Housing crisis come true." This is how FNAIM, the National Real Estate Federation, describes the year 2023 in its report unveiled this Tuesday at a press conference. The number of sales has collapsed and prices are finally starting to drop, but not everywhere!

Dramatic! That's the word to describe the real estate market in 2023. The FNAIM, the National Real Estate Federation, has just unveiled, this Tuesday, its balance sheet and the conclusions are frightening. Over the whole year, FNAIM estimates the number of sales concluded at 875,000, i.e. 240,000 fewer transactions than in 2022. A historic drop, the largest in more than 50 years! And the numbers are expected to be catastrophic once again in 2024, with 800,000 acts.

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Prices are falling in all major cities

Unsurprisingly, Paris has fallen back below 10,000 euros per square meter (9,966 euros), a 5.7% drop in prices in one year. This is the largest decrease, because in the rest of the Île-de-France region, prices fell by only 3.6%. In the 10 largest French cities, excluding Paris, it is one point less (-2.6%). What is important to remember, according to the FNAIM, is that prices are falling where they had risen the most, because outside the big cities, they are less impacted by the real estate crisis.

Another lesson is that the borrowing capacity of the French has literally melted away. With a monthly repayment of 1,000 euros over 20 years, it was possible to obtain a loan of 216,000 euros in January 2022, while in November 2023, the same monthly payment allowed you to borrow "only" 162,000 euros, i.e. a decrease of 54,000 euros in purchasing capacity! Fortunately, the National Real Estate Federation forecasts a stabilization of interest rates around 4% and an acceleration of the fall in prices, but sellers still have to accept.