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NON-FRENCH BUYERS MAKE UP MORE THAN 10% OF PURCHASES OF NON-NEW BUILD HOUSES IN SOME DEPARTMENTS The portion of non-French people buying non-new build houses in the country is increasing. 

In multiple departments, non-French buyers make up over 10% of purchases of non-new build houses (maisons anciennes), with only a handful of areas seeing the portion of foreign buyers

decrease over the last 12 months. The information comes from the end-of-year report from the French Conseil Supérieur de Notariat.  The report also covers which areas have seen prices drop

the most, and the overall plummet in property sales in France in 2024.  Read more: Property sales plummet in France but did any areas resist price drops? FOREIGN BUYERS PREFER SOUTH

Departments in the north of France have mostly seen the part of purchases by non-French people relative to overall purchases stay stable in previous years. However, the amount of purchases

by foreigners is up in almost all departments in the south compared to 2023. The Haute-Savoie and Gers departments saw the number of non-French buyers of non-new builds as a portion of total

buyers increase by two percentage points compared to the previous year.  It means 12% of non-new build property purchases in the former came from non-French buyers, just behind the

Alpes-Maritimes, where 13% of purchases involve a non-French person.  This is compared to 9% in 2021, a year that saw many areas of France see non-French buyers drop, partly due to the Covid

pandemic. Only a handful of departments, mostly those in the north-east, saw the portion of non-French purchasers drop in 2024. In the Creuse, this was by one percentage point. The images

below shows changes at a departmental level in 2019, 2021, and 2024. Grey shows the share of buyers dropping compared to the previous calendar year, and purple if the number has increased. 

In departments shaded blue there was no significant change. The 2024 report did not detail which country buyers originated from, but last year the notaires revealed Britons were no longer

the biggest group of non-French buyers.  Read more: Britons no longer the biggest group of foreign homebuyers in France The report also looked at the number of people from the Île-de-France

capital region moving elsewhere in the country. Numbers have stabilised following a mass exodus during the Covid pandemic, when almost all departments saw an increase in buyers from Paris

and its surrounding areas.  However some departments, including in Brittany and Normandy, have seen numbers fall.  Overall, property transactions are down 17% compared to the previous year,

going from 935,000 in the 12 months to September 2023 to 780,000 in the equivalent period this year, the notaires stated in their report.  Read more: Properties you can buy for under €50,00,

€150,000 and €1 million in Pas-de-Calais