2025 will have marked the rebound of old real estate! According to the latest figures from Notaries of France, sales have recovered this year and should continue this trend in the coming months. At the end of September, they recorded 921,000 transactions in France (mainland and Dom Tom, excluding Mayotte), an increase of almost 11% in one year. As a reminder, after a peak at 1.13 million in 2022, the market declined to 932,000 signatures in 2023 then to 845,000 in 2024, according to Fnaim.
Notaries expect the trend to have continued over the last three months of the year, which could see the market reach 929,000 sales.
Prices up slightly for apartments, stable for houses
Although sales have started to rise quite sharply, prices have stagnated. Those of apartments only increased by 1.3% over the period on average. The most notable increases concern so-called “cities”.affordable», according to notaries, notably Reims (+2%), Toulon (+2%), Marseille (+2%) and Dijon (+3%). Only 4 municipalities are in decline: Nantes (-1%), Le Havre (-1%), Lyon (-2%) and Bordeaux (-4%).
These corrections may seem limited at first glance, but they follow much sharper declines last year. A trend which also concerns the entire territory, since 2024 was generally marked by a “generalized decline» in France, recall the notaries in their assessment. Prices per m² for old apartments now range between 1,150 euros in Saint-Étienne and 9,570 euros in Paris.
After falls of between -2% and -10% last year, house prices took a pause and have barely changed in one year (+0.2%). Notaries estimate that they should end 2025 slightly in the green (+1.2%). However, certain urban areas stand out with larger increases, such as Reims, Saint-Étienne, Grenoble, Lille and Dijon, which experienced increases of around 3%. “Median sales prices are approaching their record level in the urban areas of Marseille-Aix-en-Provence, Grenoble, Dijon and Lille but no new record has been recorded.», underline the notaries. Conversely, some municipalities experienced dropouts: -5% in Lyon, -3% in Montpellier and Nantes, and -2% in Bordeaux.
Growing real estate purchasing power
In two years, households have gained 6m² more. This gain is essentially due to an increase in average disposable income in constant euros (+1.5% per year) and a 5% drop in property prices. The real estate purchasing power of buyers is thus clearly improving since its low point in 2023 (75m² compared to 81 m² this year).
With 300,000 euros, a buyer can thus afford the choice of a 2-room apartment in Paris, a three-room apartment in Lyon or a five-room house in Reims.
Thermal strainers always sell for less
The ban on renting energy-intensive housing (classified E, F and G in terms of their energy performance diagnosis) is still in effect. According to notaries, they represented 40% of sales last year, with more or less significant discounts. Taking D-rated housing transactions as a reference, they estimated that it would take between -4% and -12% for apartments and up to -25% for houses. Conversely, energetically virtuous goods are valued and present added values of between +6 and +17%, all typologies combined.
