Call of the wild

Will the French property market be changed after Covid-19? Nadia Jordan believes that security, privacy and self-sufficiency will be top of househunters’ lists

- Nadia Jordan

If the experience of the Covid-19 pandemic is likely to change the way we live, as most psychologists and economists are predicting, then it follows that it is also likely to fundamentally change the type of property we decide to buy in the future and where it is located.

The property market in France has been on pause since 17 March or at least actual physical viewings and transactions have been on hold. The same, however, is not true of property enquiries; estate agents, in south-west France at least, where I live, are currently experiencing a large increase in enquiries and website views and many of these are apparently for country properties. Sarah Day, of agency Maisons et Manoirs in Gers, reports that property enquiries have increased by at least 30% over the last few weeks, mainly from Parisians looking for a country bolthole.

Some of these enquiries are undoubtedly from people dreaming of freedom and space, browsing property websites between Zoom meetings and conference calls; imagining a different reality to their current lockdown life in their claustrophobic city apartment or town house.

There are, however, some serious buyers out there making appointments to view properties as soon as the lockdown is lifted. Carol McGregor of Leggett Immobilier in Haute-Garonne says she has been fielding calls from serious buyers who have a clear idea of what they are looking for and are making viewing appointments for as soon as they are allowed to go out and about again.

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