Updated February 2012. Next update around March 19, 2012.
To be notified of the next updates

Historical statistics :

• on the French property market : apartment and house price and rent indices, number and value of property sales, mortgages, households’ mortgage debt, housing affordability, housebuilding, etc.,
• and its environment : income per household, interest rate, inflation, value of other investments (stocks, bonds, gold), population, number of households, etc.,
• including some international comparisons (mainly with the United States and the United Kingdom),
• presented in a long run perspective and compared to long-term trends.
  

1. French property market : 2012 updates
2. Home prices and housing market in France : permanent documents in English
3. Home prices and housing market in France : permanent documents in French

English FAQs (French FAQs)

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1. French property market : 2012 updates

Monthly or quarterly updates of the permanent documents listed in § 2. and 3. below.

1.1. The French housing market and its environment since 1800 : charts in English

Evolution since the 19th century of the price, value and number of property sales in France, as well as of rents, inflation, income per household, interest rates, mortage credit, households’ mortage debt, housing affordability, housebuilding, household numbers and stock prices, with respect to long term trends. Chart 2.2. compares the evolution of home prices in France, the USA and the UK.

1.2. Notaires-INSEE French existing-home price index

Complete historical data from 1992 to 2011 (click on "Historical Data") of the existing apartment and house price index, including local indices (Paris, Lyon, Marseille and their regions and urban areas). Method (in English).

1.3. Number of existing apartment and house sales in France

Historical data from 1992 to 2011 (12 month-estimate, all of France). Method (in French). NB : important caveat.

1.4. Number of sales of properties subject to the regular transaction tax in France

Historical data from 2004 to 2011 : number of sales of properties of all type (residential or not) taxed at the regular transaction tax rate (12-month estimate, all of France and by department) : data, charts and map. Method (in French). The update of this file is temporarily suspended, for resaons explained here.

1.5. Property transaction tax base

Property transaction tax base from 2000 to 2011, updated monthly, by month, tax rate and department : maps, charts and values. Method (in French). NB : important caveat.

• France, all departments and all regions .
• Data and charts by department :
  • Region of Paris : Paris (75) Seine-et-Marne (77) Yvelines (78) Essonne (91) Hauts-de-Seine (92) Seine-St-Denis (93) Val-de-Marne (94) Val-d’Oise (95)
  • Alsace : Bas-Rhin (67) Haut-Rhin (68)
  • Aquitaine : Dordogne (24) Gironde (33) Landes (40) Lot-et-Garonne (47) Pyrénées-Atlantiques (64)
  • Auvergne : Allier (03) Cantal (15) Haute-Loire (43) Puy-de-Dôme (63)
  • Bourgogne : Côte-d’Or (21) Nièvre (58) Saône-et-Loire (71) Yonne (89)
  • Bretagne : Côtes-d’Armor (22) Finistère (29) Ille-et-Vilaine (35) Morbihan (56)
  • Centre : Cher (18) Eure-et-Loir (28) Indre (36) Indre-et-Loire (37) Loir-et-Cher (41) Loiret (45)
  • Champagne-Ardenne : Ardennes (08) Aube (10) Marne (51) Haute-Marne (52)
  • Corse : Corse-du-Sud (2A) Haute-Corse (2B)
  • Franche-Comté : Doubs (25) Jura (39) Haute-Saône (70) Territoire-de-Belfort (90)
  • Languedoc-Roussillon : Aude (11) Gard (30) Hérault (34) Lozère (48) Pyrénées-Orientales (66)
  • Limousin : Corrèze (19) Creuse (23) Haute-Vienne (87)
  • Lorraine : Meurthe-et-Moselle (54) Meuse (55) Moselle (57) Vosges (88)
  • Midi-Pyrénées : Ariège (09) Aveyron (12) Haute-Garonne (31) Gers (32) Lot (46) Hautes-Pyrénées (65) Tarn (81) Tarn-et-Garonne (82)
  • Nord-Pas-de-Calais : Nord (59) Pas-de-Calais (62)
  • Basse-Normandie : Calvados (14) Manche (50) Orne (61)
  • Haute-Normandie : Eure (27) Seine-Maritime (76)
  • Pays-de-la-Loire : Loire-Atlantique (44) Maine-et-Loire (49) Mayenne (53) Sarthe (72) Vendée (85)
  • Picardie : Aisne (02) Oise (60) Somme (80)
  • Poitou-Charente : Charente (16) Charente-Maritime (17) Deux-Sèvres (79) Vienne (86)
  • Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur : Alpes-de-Haute-Provence (04) Hautes-Alpes (05) Alpes-Maritimes (06) Bouches-du-Rhône (13) Var (83) Vaucluse (84)
  • Rhône-Alpes : Ain (01) Ardèche (07) Drôme (26) Isère (38) Loire (42) Rhône (69) Savoie (73) Haute-Savoie (74)
  • Départements d’Outre-Mer : Guadeloupe (971) Martinique (972) Guyane (973) Réunion (974)

1.6. Other French property statistics

Statistique Publique provides many other statistics about French real estate, including :

• number and price of new dwellings sold by housebuillders,
• number and price of constructible land plots and of individual houses built by individuals on these plots,
• number of building permits and construction,
• construction cost index (ICC),
• principal home and holiday home rent indices (not to be mistaken with the reference rent index),
• and various other property indices.
  

The Bank of France publishes residential mortgage interest rates and amounts.

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2. Home prices and housing market in France : permanent documents in English

• «  Home Prices in France, Past and Prospects : in One Page », October 2010, an English abstract of documents listed in § 3. below.

• Neil Monnery’s « Safe as Houses? a Historical Analysis of Property Prices », September 2011, review.

• Long Run Data Series, 1800-2010, which support and update the papers listed below : residential property price and rent indices, number and total value of property sales, interest rates, mortgage duration, households’ income and mortgage debt, value of investments in housing, stocks, bonds and gold, consumer price index, construction cost index, population, number of households, etc. These series apply to France but also, in some cases, to the USA and the UK. A few longer series, back to year 1200, can be found in the appendix of the paper below « Comparing Four Secular Home Price Indices ».

• « Comparing Four Secular Home Price Indices », June 2008. This paper compares four secular home price indices in France, the Netherlands, Norway and the United States, one of which - for Paris - goes back to the 13th century. It stresses that their long term trend should be interpreted with caution.

• «  Long Term (1800-2005) Investment in Gold, Bonds, Stocks and Housing in France - with Insights into the USA and the UK : a Few Regularities  », January 2007. This paper comments on the evolution of asset prices for the past two centuries. Its exhibit 1 compares British and French property prices in the long run. Its exhibit 2 comments on French American cross-border investments in the past two centuries, in terms of return, volatility and diversifying power.

• « Home Prices over the Long Run », presentation at Western Economic Association International 85th Annual Conference, Vancouver, June 2009.

• « The Number of Existing-Home Transactions », English version of a paper published in Études Foncières, 126, March - April 2007.
• «  Home Purchases by Foreigners in France », English version of a review published in Études Foncières, 129, September - October 2007 about a paper by L. Fauvet.
• « Long Term Home Prices and Residential Property Investment Performance in Paris in the Time of the French Franc, 1840-2001 », February 2002.

• « Managing Home Price Risk by Financial Instruments Indexed on the Notaires-INSEE Home Price Indices », September 2001.

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3. Home prices and housing market in France : permanent documents in French

3.1. Home prices

• « Which Perspectives for Home Prices after their Surge? », prospective paper, Regards croisés sur l’économie, May 2011.

• « The Elasticity of Home Prices with Respect to their Number », August 2011. Based on estimates found in the literature, on a comparison between French departments, and on a comparison between France and the United Kingdom, the elasticity of home prices with respect to the number of dwellings seems to be in the -1 to -2 range, which means that when the number of dwellings increases by 1% their price decreases by around 1% or 2%, "everything else being equal". The size of this elasticity appears little sensitive to the urban type, to the local level of home prices or construction subsidies, etc.

• « Apartment versus House Price Trend : the Inversion of 2001 », August 2011. From 1965 to 2000 sale prices as well as occupiers’ income had been growing slower for apartments than for individual houses in France. Since 2001, while incomes have been following on the same trend, on the contrary apartement prices have been increasing relative to house prices in a majority of departments, particularly in large urban areas and on the Mediterranean coast. This divergence does not look sustainable in the long run. This paper follows on an previous one, « Depreciation and Pauperization of Apartments relative to Detached Houses, 1994-2002 », September 2005.

• « Differentiation of Home Price Growth among French Departments, 1994-2010 », August 2011. French home price growth from 2000 to 2010 has been very different depending on the department, ranging from 59% in Territoire de Belfort to 138% in Bouches-du-Rhône. It had been widely differentiated in the 1990s too. This paper aims at characterizing this differentiation by comparing it to that of other local parameters : demography, housebuilding, change in income per household and in unemployment rate, occupancy status (owner-occupied versus rented, principal home versus vacation home, vacancy rate, etc.), population, buyers’ and sellers’ nationality, age, etc.

• « Home Prices in the Long Run », March 2010. This paper recalls the evolution of the price of non-property assets over the past two centuries, presents the evolution of home prices since the 13th century, their main properties over the latest decades, including in relation with economic, financial, demographic and housing aggregates, considers residential property as a long run investment, describes the number and the amount of dwelling sales, draws prospective scenarios then concludes.

• « Existing Home Prices in the 2000’s », INSEE-Première, May 2010, paper coauthored with Catherine Rougerie (INSEE - Housing Division).

• The Spatial Relationship between Income and Home Prices :
  
  • in the main French urban areas (numerical data : html or Excel),
    
  • and in the main cities of the Paris Region (numerical data : html or Excel),
    two short papers published in the French Notaries’ quartely property market review (2010).

• « Home Price Seasonality », paper published in Études Foncières, 121, May-June 2006.

• « Home Prices in 2004 : some Historical Abnormalities », Urbanissimo, 78, October 2004.

• « Investments in Stocks and Dwellings : some Regularities in the Long Run », Réflexions immobilières, 33, September 2002.

• « 40 years of home prices in the Region of Paris » paper presented at a conference organised by the Council of the Region of Paris and the Interdepartmental Paris Chamber of Notaries, October 23, 2001.

• « Long Run Home Price Evolution », SES synthesis paper, Ministère de l’Équipement, March-April 2001.

3.2. Numbers and amounts of property sales, property transaction taxes

• « Property Transaction Taxes and Amounts of Transactions , 1800-2008 » , April 2009. A history of property transaction taxes (rate, receipts, tax base, etc.) over the past two centuries.
• « Occupancy Status of Dwellings Purchased or Built by Individuals », June 2007. Estimates of the decomposition of existing and new home sales by occupancy status (owner-occupied principal home, rented principal home, other principal home, secondary home, vacant), by type (apartment, individual house), size, location, etc., for years 2001 and 2003.

• « Departments’ Property Transaction Tax Receipts : a Euphoria which Can’t Last », paper published in « Urbanissimo », 87, October 2005.

3.3. Change in Housing Conditions in the Long Run

• « Households and their Dwellings since 1955 and 1970, Results from INSEE’s Housing Surveys », August 2010 (numerical data). This paper describes several long term trends over the latest decades : increase in home ownership, pauperization of tenants with respect to owner-occupiers, pauperization of apartments with respect to individual houses, increase in tenants’ rent / income ratio, decrease in the number of persons per household, increase in the number of square meters per person, decrease in the number of new dwellings with respect to existing-home sales, etc..
• « Fifty Years of Household’s Housing Condition Changes », Alain Jacquot, INSEE, Données Sociales, 2006.

3.4. Miscellaneous papers

• « Projection to 2030 of Households’ Mortgage Debt », August 2010. French households’ mortgage debt doubled from 2000 to 2010. Its projected increase depends on the assumptions.
• «  Principal Residence Mortgage Duration, 1967-2005 », May 2010. Reconstitution based on INSEE’s Housing surveys.
• « Existing-Home Brokerage Market Share since 1945 », working paper, November 2008. Proportion of sales performed directly between individuals, through a realtor, or through a notary.
• « Existing Home "Viager" Sales », February 2008. Statistics on "viager" sales : number, sellers’ and buyers’ age, sex and other characteristics, types of dwellings, etc.
• « On the Cost of Housing Social Mixity », November 2005.

3.5. Housing Prices in the Long Run : Presentations

• « Home Prices in the Long Run (October 2011) », continued education, Institut d’études politiques de Paris.
• « Home Prices in the Long Run (June 2011) », presentation to finance professionals from the Region of Paris.
• « Home Prices in the Long Run (March 2011) », presentation to the Doctoral Seminar Economics, Organizations, Society, Paris-West University.
• « Home Prices in the Long Run (December 2010) », presentation to the alumni of ENSAE.
• « Home Prices in the Long Run (October 2010) », presentation to Club des développeurs immobiliers et fonciers.
• «  Home Prices in the Long Run (March 2010) », présentation based on the paper of the same title dated March 2010 and mentioned above in§ 3.1..
• « Four Secular Home Price Indices (October 2009) », presentation at IDEP (Marseille).
• «  Home Prices in the Long Run (January 2009) », presentation to the directors of Fnschlm, January 2009.