With the health crisis and the absence of holidaymakers, the furnished apartment market has exploded over the past twelve months with the arrival of apartments normally dedicated to platforms such as Airbnb.

As a result, in the large cities of France such as Paris or Bordeaux, rental prices have fallen sharply. 

If you are a tenant or looking for a rental, now is the time to sign a lease. Because this is one of the effects of the health crisis: rental prices are down sharply in most major cities in France - like Paris, with -4.5% - or even in Bordeaux, which has recorded a decline. 6.7% decrease. And it is the furnished apartment market that has exploded in particular over the past twelve months with the arrival of apartments usually rented on platforms such as Airbnb. In the capital, for example, their number has been multiplied by 5, and the same goes for Boulogne-Billancourt. In Amiens and Annecy, it is also three times more than a year ago, according to the seLoger barometer. And the phenomenon is national, as the city of Bordeaux also illustrates.

"Lower prices to restart the machine"

Here, the agencies are formal, this specific offer concerning furnished apartments has literally jumped.

"The explosion took place this winter with all these Airbnb accommodation which were no longer rented since there were no longer any holidaymakers in Bordeaux. This offer therefore carried over to the traditional rental market. example passed from 795 euros for a furnished one-bedroom apartment, to 690 for renting it ", explains Kévin, who works in a real estate agency in the Victoire district. 

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Some real estate agencies therefore encourage owners to lower prices to be certain of renting their property, because the supply is always greater than the demand.

"We have a lot of furnished apartments for rent at the moment and which are difficult to find takers because of the health crisis. Because these are fairly typical accommodation for students or transferred people, who are not very there at the moment. We therefore contacted them. owners to lower prices a bit and get the machine going again, "acknowledges Thomas, rental director of Oralia Bordeaux. 

An economic downturn?

Good news for tenants therefore, especially for students, who will be able to be choosy and afford bigger and above all more beautiful, as Marie-Cécile Gérardin, real estate agent in Paris, notes.

"We have a lot of studios with toilets on the landing and these can no longer find a taker. Above all, we have a large market of pretty studio apartments for rent which have been completely renovated," she explains.

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As to whether this drop in rents is lasting, it is difficult to predict what will happen next.

According to the experts contacted by Europe 1, it could become structural if the universities decided, for example, to perpetuate the system of distance learning courses.

In this case, student housing would clearly no longer be a profitable product for investors.

More generally, the sustainability of this decline should also depend on the upturn in activity in the weeks and months to come.