France never really bought into the US-style property frenzy with the same zeal as Britain. The French have generally shunned variable-rate mortgages, with their element of unpredictability, and home-lending practices have toed a more conventional line.
Nonetheless, a tide may be turning in France, where existing home prices fell 0.8% in the first quarter of this year - after rising just under half a percent in the previous quarter. In Paris itself, prices were still up 1.1% in the first three months, but that marked a slowdown from the 2% increase in the year-earlier period. And elsewhere in the Greater Paris region known as Ile de France, home prices declined, falling 1% in the Val d’Oise, north of the capital.
But the real shock stats are to be seen in housing sales. Year-on-year sales of all homes plummeted some 17% in May in France. In Ile de France, sales tumbled some 21%.
