News Digest: Notaires de France Property Report & France’s Government Reshuffle

The official numbers are in on the 2023 French property market as Notaires de France releases their latest report, which includes statistics from the 3^rd quarter (July through September) of 2023. The report, released on February 7^th, shows a clear downward trend in national property sales, with a more than 20% drop in property sales (of houses and apartments, excluding new builds) compared with the previous year – from 1,100,000 properties to 850,000 properties over the same time period. To put this in perspective, it’s the largest annual decline that the property market has seen since 2013, and numbers haven’t dipped below 900,000 since 2017.

This drop also coincided with a -1.8% decrease in property prices nationwide and -5.3% in the Ile de France region, much of which took place during the final three months (between the 2^nd and 3^rd quarters of 2023) when prices dropped by an average of -1.1%.

The notaires predict a continuing decline in prices of existing houses into 2024, with estimates of up to -4.2% by February 2024 (although the official data on this isn’t in yet), with sales also continuing their decline. However, there is light at the end of the tunnel – the report also concludes that “most of the upheaval created by the rise in key rates on the real estate market now seems to be behind us”, with interest rates beginning to gradually decline towards the middle and end of 2024.

You can read the full report here.

French schools closed for the February half-term holidays in Zone C yesterday (Monday, 12th February), with schoolchildren enjoying a two-week break. As with many other school holidays throughout the year, the dates are staggered, starting with Zone C, which includes Paris and Toulouse, followed by Zone A (central and southwestern France) on 17th February, then Zone B (northern and southeastern France) on 24th February. Find out about French school zones and school holiday dates here.

Although France’s new prime minister, Gabriel Attal, was appointed back on January 9^th, it’s taken him almost a month to appoint his full government – the full list of 35 ministers was finally announced last week, on February 8^th. Only one of Macron’s original ministers remains in their position – Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, who has been in place since Macron was first elected in 2017 – but several other ministers held onto their titles.

Other key appointments include Gérald Darmanin as Interior Minister, Catherine Vautrin as Health and Labour Minister, and Rachida Dati as Culture Minister. Nicole Belloubet takes over as Education Minister, after the brief appointment of Amélie Oudéra-Castéra caused a teachers’ strike – she has now been reassigned as Sports Minister instead.

Agriculture Minister Marc Fesnau, Armed Forces Minister Sébastian Lecornu, Environment Minister Christophe Béchu, and Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti have all kept their posts, while former European parliament member Stéphane Séjourner takes over as Foreign Minister.

Tomorrow (Wednesday, 14th February) is Valentine’s Day or La Saint-Valentin in France, and although the French don’t celebrate quite as enthusiastically as many anglophone countries, it’s still a popular tradition to buy your loved one flowers and chocolates or organise a special date night. Here are our tips for celebrating Valentine’s Day in France.