According to a study by Meilleur Agents, large French metropolises do not attract as much as before.
This is due to many drawbacks reinforced by the coronavirus health crisis this year, but also to the increased attractiveness of medium-sized cities.
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Too expensive, too populated and too polluted, the big metropolises?
According to the 2020 barometer of cities in France established by Meilleur Agents, they no longer attract households, who prefer to fall back on these cities on a human scale.
Almost a quarter of the working population of large agglomerations would like to move to settle in these cities, ie around 400,000 people.
And the government wants to make these agglomerations the "figurehead" of the recovery plan.
Being close to Paris, "without the inconveniences"
But why are the French motivated to leave the big cities?
Angers, Clermont-Ferrand, Reims, Rouen, or even Dijon.
These cities are now doing well. And if this movement towards medium-sized cities began before the pandemic, containment, fear of the virus and the explosion of teleworking accelerated it.
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"There is work, shops, public transport," says Yacine, who moved with his wife from Paris to Évreux a few months ago.
"We are an hour by train from Paris, which is a great advantage. There are highways that do not go very far when you want to get around. We are close to Paris, its activities, family and friends, but there are no drawbacks, such as transport, traffic jams or the very high cost of living. "
20 m2 in Paris, 117 m2 in Quimper
In these cities, the purchasing power of real estate is much more attractive: leaving Paris, the couple in their thirties were able to afford a small house for 120,000 euros, which would have been mission impossible in the capital.
According to the study, at comparable wages, households can buy 70m2 in Angers, 91m2 in Poitiers, 117m2 in Quimper, but only 20m2 in Paris.