Real Estate visits authorised over 100KM and restart of Real Estate economy
Real Estate can finally resume its activity with the French people
Possible trips for a Real Estate visit over 100KM
The government has decided to re-authorize property visits throughout France. An opportunity for real estate agencies.
It is now possible for the French people to move further than the 100KM currently authorised, whether it would be for a purchase or a rental when they cannot be carried over. The opportunity for French real estate players to get back to work and restart their activity.
In order to allow the French people to resume their real estate projects and encourage the resumption of activity in the sector, property moves and property visits outside of their departments and more than 100 km from their home residence are now authorised. Decree No. 2020-604, published on May 21, 2020 in the Official Journal, specifies these two new derogations from the principle of prohibiting the movement of people over 100 kilometers outside their department of residence.
A new certificate model will soon be online and will specify the supporting documents to be provided in order to be able to make these trips.
Property moves also to be resumed
For people moving on their own, they must have a travel certificate if the move takes them to another department and beyond a distance of 100 km from their initial residence. This derogatory certificate will soon be available on the net.
Note that in the case of a move or a visit to his department and less than 100 km from the initial residence, no certificate is necessary.
The restart of real estate market after deconfinement?
After a gradual recovery of construction sites in new real estate, it is the turn of the second hand market to raise the head as the deconfinement becomes clearer.
Many players in real estate have reviewed their organisation during the lockdown period like other sectors elsewhere, the time is for innovation and digitalisation. Thanks to the internet, the agencies were able to follow up their client : answer clients’ questions, follow up their files, reassure them, make the link with notaries or banks that are sometimes difficult to reach. Mails, calls and videoconferences made it possible to ensure follow-up and therefore to resume activity smoothly at the end of the confinement.
Finally, it will now be necessary to finalize operations quickly, especially since the retractions have been relatively few as can be noticed by some major French real estate brands. Concerning the legal deadlines, a first framework had been fixed by ordinance to extend them. Given the extension of the state of health emergency by two months, an additional text should be adopted in the coming days so as not to extend them further.
Following this economic fall, what is the horizon for 2020?
The real estate market is not expected to collapse in the mid term. In this context of health and economic uncertainties, 68% of individuals with a real estate project think that stone is still the safest investment today.
For the moment, it is a solid market as reported by Laforet Real Estate Agencies, there are 10 buyers for a seller in France and 90 buyers for a seller in Paris. Even if demand were to drop significantly, the market would still remain very unbalanced in favor of the sellers.
An additional signal of market resistance, MeilleursAgents.com has observed a gradual recovery by the sellers with regard to the number of estimates since the announcement of the end date of lockdown. The recovery of the real estate market will mainly depend on a global economic recovery and also the ability to have access to bank loans.
What about prices?
It is too early to notice a change in property prices. For example at Agence Mer et Montagne, when a property is put up for sale on the website, tools are used to trace the reaction of potential buyers – number of clicks, requests for information, visits… For mountain properties, it will only be after a month and a half that we will be able to compare the statistics of these indicators with related or equivalent properties that were on sale before confinement. After this period of time, we we will be able to notice if the property has been put at the right price or if it is better to revise it down.
Indeed, the economic recovery and more generally the resumption of “normal life” for all French people will take some time. With the attraction of the mountain sector for the summer of 2020, this will surely give a boost to the heart of high-end real estate.