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TRANSACTIONS IN ONE REGION ARE DOWN MORE THAN 30% WITH PRICES FALLING AS MUCH AS 24% IN SOME DEPARTMENTS Now could be a good time to buy property in some parts of rural France, as the prices

of homes in the countryside have fallen significantly, newly-released figures show. In 2023, there were just 91,000 transactions for houses in rural areas, a drop of 24.2% compared to 2022,

show figures released by the government-backed Safer network (Sociétés d'aménagement foncier et d'établissement rural) which oversees sales and purchases of properties in rural

and farming areas. Safer calculated its conclusions based on sales of country houses with land of less than five hectares bought by non-farmers as a principal or secondary residence. Read

also: Buying rural property in France: Get to know the 'Safer' rules  The reduction in transactions is thought to be mainly due to the sharp rise in mortgage rates in 2023.  Rates

reached an average of 4% for 20-year loans, forcing many would-be buyers – particularly those climbing onto the property ladder for the first time – to abandon their plans. “Almost the

entire country has seen a decline in the number of transactions between 2022 and 2023,” Safer said in its report. It said that this was particularly marked in:  HOUSE PRICES DROP – BUT NOT

EVERYWHERE This has had a knock-on effect on sellers, many of whom were forced to lower prices last year. On average, house prices in mainland France fell by 4.3%, the report said.  At

department level, the figures show that house prices have fallen the most in:  * Marne (a drop of 24.4%) * Côte-d'Or (24% drop) * Doubs (23.7% drop) However this is not the case

everywhere.  Prices of countryside houses rose by an average of 14.4% in Haute-Savoie, 14.1% in Seine-et-Marne, 22.2% in Essonne and 42.5% in Yvelines. Read also: PHOTO: The French chateau

for sale for… €425 million  A full list of the change in average prices in 2022 and 2023 can be seen on our map below. The number of rural house sales in 2023 is also shown, if you hover

over each department. Note that in some more urban departments, no sales defined as rural were recorded.