Real estate crisis: the fault of the sellers?

Albane Leprince // Photo credit: Pixabay 12:48pm, September 27, 2023

The sprinkler watered. As we now know, the real estate market is in crisis in France and the phenomenon seems to be accentuated in the third quarter of 2023 compared to the end of June. According to the third Interkab Observatory of La Boîte Immo, sellers are largely responsible for the current situation. While the number of transactions drops and sellers (who are also 90% buyers) are reluctant to lower the price of their property, and find themselves blocked in their purchase projects.

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87% of sellers are also looking to buy

Indeed, according to the study of La Boîte Immo, only half of them agree to negotiate. Worse, in the Alpes-Maritimes department, they are more than 7 out of 10 to maintain their prices even though the number of properties for sale increased by 21% during the last quarter. As a result, owners who can't sell can't buy either. The snake bites its own tail... But that's not all. Added to this phenomenon is an increase in sales times.

Today, it takes an average of 91 days to sign a compromise, i.e. 33 days more than in the second quarter of 2023... This even goes up to 113 days in Montpellier, 107 in Toulouse and 105 in Nantes. As a result, the number of goods in stock explodes. There were 104,000 in February 2023 at the national level, they are now 366,000.

Agents select sellers

Between the increase in sales times, the volume of stocks and the fall in the number of transactions, mistrust reigns among independent real estate agents. Still according to the Interkab Observatory, they are 56% to say they are more attentive to the properties they select. They now prefer to refuse a sales mandate when they feel that the price charged by the owners is too high. A proportion that rises to 80% in the departments of Hauts-de-Seine and Val-de-Marne.