Know the French market: Paris, the Côte d'Azur, Lyon and Bordeaux

France is one country with very different markets. A Haussmann flat in Paris, a sea-view apartment in Nice, a family home in Lyon and a stone house in Bordeaux attract different buyers, at different prices, for different reasons. Knowing these differences, with your sources, is what makes clients trust you.

The big picture

The market is recovering slowly. About 949,000 existing homes were sold in the 12 months to the end of May 2026, up 5.7% in a year, against a low point of 832,000 in September 2024 and a record of 1,251,000 in August 2021 (MesFraisNotaire, citing Notaires de France, July 2026).

Prices are flat. The Notaires-INSEE index rose 0.1% in a year in Q1 2026: apartments +0.6%, houses -0.2%, with Île-de-France leading the rise.

Mortgages. PAP.fr reported broker averages in October 2026 of 3.50% over 15 years, 3.66% over 20 years and 3.75% over 25 years, with the best profiles at 3.00% to 3.25%. Rates had been rising since September, and brokers expected 3.70% to 4% by the end of 2026.

Prices in your four markets

MeilleursAgents estimates at 1 October 2026, in euros per m²:

City	Apartments	Houses
Paris	9,630	10,059
Nice	5,245	6,365
Lyon	4,714	5,798
Bordeaux	4,448	4,960

These are portal estimates. Notaires’ figures are based on signed deeds and lag a few months. Always say which kind of figure you quote.

Paris. The Notaires du Grand Paris put existing apartments at €9,550/m² at the end of July 2026, down 0.5% in a year, and Île-de-France apartments at €6,150/m². Île-de-France recorded 36,810 sales from May to July 2026, up 5%. Pre-contracts pointed to about €9,600/m² in Paris in October 2026.

Côte d’Azur. Actual-Immo, using the SeLoger and MeilleursAgents barometer for September 2026, gave apartment prices of €6,529/m² in Antibes (+4.9% in a year), €6,064/m² in Cannes (-1.1%) and €5,219/m² in Nice (-1.4%). Prestige villas follow their own logic, street by street.

Lyon. We found no recent notaires figure for this course. MeilleursAgents gives €4,714/m² for apartments.

Bordeaux. Syage Notaires, citing Notaires de France, put the median existing apartment at €4,240/m² in Q3 2025 (-1% in a year), and the median house at €345,000 (+0.4%).

Who buys

Most buyers are French residents. Non-resident foreigners made about 1.8% of existing-home sales in metropolitan France in 2022, about 20,000 sales (MySweetimmo, citing notaires).

The picture is very different on the Riviera. An older notaires study, based on 2017 data and reported by the Journal de l’Agence, found non-resident foreigners behind about 7% of purchases in the Alpes-Maritimes, against 1.6% nationally and 0.7% in Île-de-France, led by British, then Belgian and German buyers. Use these as a ranking, since the data are old.

So:

• Paris: mostly French buyers, with an international niche in prestige districts.
• Côte d’Azur: the most international market in this course. Languages pay here.
• Lyon and Bordeaux: mostly local and national buyers, families and investors.

France places no restriction on foreigners buying property (lesson 6).

Taxes your clients will ask about

Second homes. Communes in zone tendue may add 5% to 60% to their share of the taxe d’habitation on second homes. SeLoger (October 2026) counted 3,689 communes in zone tendue, 1,666 applying a surcharge and 688 at the 60% maximum, including Paris, Lyon, Bordeaux and Nice. Cannes applies no surcharge. We did not find Antibes’s position, so check with the town hall.

IFI. The wealth tax on real estate applies above €1.3 million of net taxable property at 1 January, at rates from 0.5% to 1.5%, unchanged in 2026 (Fondation de France). Non-residents are taxed only on their French real estate. Debates about widening it are not law.

Selling later. Non-resident sellers pay capital gains tax at 19% plus social levies (lesson 6).

Off-plan and new builds

New homes are sold VEFA (vente en l’état futur d’achèvement), with a regulated payment schedule and a compulsory completion guarantee (lesson 6). Two changes matter for investors:

• Pinel ended on 31 December 2024 (Lefebvre Dalloz).
• A new statut du bailleur privé, also called the dispositif Jeanbrun, came with the 2026 finance law (n° 2026-103 of 19 February 2026). Manda summarises it: for purchases until 31 December 2028, an investor who lets unfurnished for nine years can depreciate 80% of the price, at 3.5%, 4.5% or 5.5% a year for new flats in collective buildings (intermediate, social or very social rent), and 3%, 3.5% or 4% for older homes with works of at least 30% of the price, with yearly caps of €8,000, €10,000 or €12,000. Houses are excluded and a household can use it for two homes at most.

The details changed during the budget debate, and an earlier summary gave different figures, so check the final text on Légifrance before you present it to a client.

How to learn your patch

1. Pick one area: an arrondissement, a Riviera town, a Lyon district or a Bordeaux neighbourhood.
2. Walk it. Learn its schools, transport, building types and new projects.
3. Track the notaires, MeilleursAgents and mortgage-rate data every month, and always name your source.
4. Learn who buys there, and in which language.

Prices and rules move fast, so check the official source before you act. See the France page and markets for what CloserPass covers.

This lesson is general information, not investment or tax advice.