Real estate purchase: here are the price discounts you can negotiate, region by region

The gap between the sale price of an old home and the price at which it is sold amounts to an average of 8.5% in France, according to the IAD network of real estate agents. An average which masks surprising regional disparities.

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“My neighbor sold his house for 700,000 euros just after the Covid epidemic, so why should I sell mine off?” Yann Jehanno, president of the Laforêt agency network, heard this question a lot in 2023, when the real estate crisis broke out, due to the surge in credit rates. But most sellers have since made up their minds: “It took 18 months to explain to them that buyers had lost purchasing power” because of the quadrupling of credit rates between the beginning of 2022 and the end of 2023, testifies the manager.

Proof that the educational treasures deployed by real estate agents have paid off, the boss of Laforêt observes that nine sales out of ten within his network are now subject to negotiation, compared to only six out of ten in 2022. His counterpart Brice Cardi, boss of L’Adresse, indicates that 93% of his agencies have noted an increase in negotiation margins in 2024, compared to 75% in 2023. “Sellers who really want to sell are playing the game and are increasingly aware of the need to accept slightly lower offers. confirms Brice Cardi, evoking margins between 4 and 15%, depending on the date the property was put on sale, its location and its energy performance diagnosis (DPE). At Laforêt, the difference negotiated by buyers between the price at which the property is put up for sale and that at which it is sold reached 5.9% on average in 2024, up 0.2 points over one year. Within the Century 21 network, the average trading margin stood at 7.1% last year, compared to 6.7% in 2023.

Low prices but high trading margins

This figure is higher within the IAD network, at 8.5%. A level which has jumped 94% since mid-2022, when the rise in credit rates had really started to strain the financing capacity of buyers. This average, however, masks important regional disparities. The negotiation margin on old apartments is only 3.6% in Alsace and it is even zero in Franche-Comté, while it hovers around 12% in Auvergne and Limousin.

Counterintuitively, “margins are highest in regions where prices are lowest”observes IAD. Auvergne, Limousin and Burgundy are “structurally narrow markets”where buyers do not rush to the gate, explains the network of agencies. When these rare buyers are also faced with financing difficulties, as has been the case for two and a half years, there is no secret, “making sales very often requires a revision of the prices displayed” on announcements, continues IAD.

Prices which are likely to rise already in 2025

On the other hand, negotiation margins are lower in regions where prices are higher. In Alsace, Ile-de-France, the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d’Azur region and even Rhône-Alpes, “the low margins reflect a shortage of goods for sale», Indicates IAD. In these markets where there are generally many buyers, sellers prefer to wait for better days to sell their property. In fact, Charles Marinakis, president of the Century 21 France network, expects a rise in real estate transactions in 2025, with 850,000 real estate transactions in the country, thanks to the continued fall in rates, compared to 780,000 in 2024. With, as a result, an increase of 2 to 3% in the prices of old housing this year, after a drop of almost 5% over the last two years.

The manager therefore urges real estate agents to “master” THE claims of sellers over the next few months: “If a seller notices that he now has three visits to his property per week, compared to zero during the previous six months, he will no longer lower his price!” “Since the start of 2024, the increase in trading margins has been significantly slower than before, mainly due to the resumption of transactions on shortage markets”notes IAD.