Is it better buy your home or remain a tenant? “From a long-term installation perspective, the purchase remains a priority”assures Aga Bojarska-Serres, credit director of the broker Meilleurtaux, who published this Wednesday, October 29 a study on the duration necessary to make a real estate acquisition profitable, compared to the cost of rental. Duration which still amounts in 2025 to 12 years and 3 monthson average, in the 32 main cities of France.
To achieve this result, the broker based himself on a property with a surface area of 70 square meters. In the case of the acquisition, he was interested in the price per square meter, the amount of the property taxdue by any owner, and co-ownership charges. For rental, Meilleurtaux studied the rents per square meter and the return on the money invested which would have been devoted to the personal contribution in the event of purchase.
Purchasing, a winning bet in less than 2 years in Mulhouse
A dozen years to make an acquisition profitable, compared to a rental, may seem like a lot to you, but it’s much better than in 2024 and 2023! Last year, a real estate purchase was not profitable for 14 years and 8 months. Two years ago, it took 15 and a half years. If the return on investment of the purchase is significantly faster today, it is primarily thanks to the drop in credit ratesfalling to just over 3% today, while they exceeded 4% in the fall of 2023. “The continued rise in rents”it also helps to accelerate the profitability of purchasing compared to renting, explains Meilleurtaux.
Furthermore, this national average of a dozen years to make a purchase profitable masks strong local disparities. In 12 large cities in France, it is in fact possible to make your acquisition profitable in less than 9 years (see infographic). In Mulhouse, by choosing to buy over rent, you can win in less than 2 years! Two years is enough time to make a purchase in Saint-Etienne profitable. It takes twice as long in Limoges and Le Havre but a period of 4 years remains very reasonable. In Perpignan and Metz, the gamble of home ownership pays off after 5 or 6 years. Some 7 years are necessary in Clermont-Ferrand, Rouen, Brest and Nîmes, and a little more than 8 years in Le Mans.
21 years to make a real estate purchase profitable in Paris
So many cities where the price per square meter does not exceed 2,600 euros. It is even less than 2,000 euros in Mulhouse, Saint-Etienne, Limoges, Le Havre and Perpignan. Prices very far from those of Bordeaux (4,501 euros), Lyon (4,739 euros), Aix-en-Provence (5,389 euros) and Paris (9,751 euros). In these four cities, there is no point hoping to make a real estate purchase profitable before at least… 20 years. Count even 21 years in Paris and 22 years in Aix. “In cities where real estate prices remain very high, the time it takes to make your purchase profitable remains long”recognizes Aga Bojarska-Serres.
Besides the high prices, “in certain metropolises, local taxation and rent control may favor rental rather than purchase over long periods”she adds. This is the case in Lyon, where you have to wait 20 years to make a purchase profitable whereas, in this city which is experimenting with rent control, they do not exceed 17 euros per square meter on average, compared to 20 euros in Nice and 18 euros in Aix-en-Provence. All that remains is to find a rental in Lyon, which is not easy, as in many other French metropolises….
