Falling sales, falling prices: the great breakdown in real estate

“I was always told that my apartment would sell easily. It’s been on sale for five months, and I have almost no visitors,” says Michèle*, alarmed. This retiree, who has been looking to sell a 40 m2 studio with a large balcony in the east of Paris since July, has already lowered her price three times, from 310,000 to 280,000 euros. And it’s far from over: “The agency is now telling me that I have to drop to 250,000 euros, otherwise I won’t sell. That the time is not good and that we must act quickly because of increasing interest rates. » A disillusionment.

Soaring credit costs and declining purchasing power: the economic cocktail is harmful for real estate. The social and political climate makes things worse. “There have been demonstrations every Saturday for more than a month, with disastrous consequences for agencies and local residents. All this contributes to the current bad situation,” confirms Thomas Lefebvre, vice-president…