Four Point Four

The Housing Observatory published its latest analysis this week, and the picture is one of a market caught between two forces moving in opposite directions.

Sales of existing homes continued to recover, with transactions up 9.4% for apartments and 11.5% for houses compared to the first quarter of 2025. Overall prices rose 0.7% quarter-on-quarter and 1.7% over twelve months. Older houses saw the strongest increase at 3%.

But the market for apartments under construction tells a different story. Sales fell 18.2%, remaining far below pre-crisis levels. The temporary tax measures that drove a surge in transactions in 2025 have expired, and the market appears to have returned to a more normal, if slower, pace.

The real pressure is in rents. Advertised rents for apartments rose 4.4% over the year, well above inflation of 1.6%.^[1] Existing leases rose a more moderate 1.4%, but anyone signing a new contract faces a significantly steeper bill.

In other words: buying is stabilising, renting is accelerating. For a country where roughly half of households are tenants, that 4.4% figure matters more than the headline house price number.

The full report (in French) is available from the Housing Observatory.^[2]