Transparency builds trust in real estate market

When investors or property buyers make a large investment, it is normal they need reassurance that they are not paying above market value for the property. Just as larger public listed companies have to provide detailed company reports, it is helpful for buyers to know the state of the property market. Especially for foreign buyers, having access to this information on the Internet is very reassuring and builds the confidence that they are safeguarding the value of their investment when buying property at the right price. And according to the Global Real Estate transparency index, France is considered highly transparent and in 4^th place out of 30 countries in Europe.

The best ways to check property prices online

Most buyers use property portals to check prices, and on our website we have listed the top 30 portals covering the South of France. This is a first cut method, as some houses listed are correctly valued and get sold at the asking price, while others are significantly overvalued, remaining on sale for years before selling finally at half the original price.

The next best method, as listed on our Market Guide is the excellent  www.meilleursagents.com website, that gives an estimated average, maximum and minimum price per m2 of living space for a town or even a street. Up to now this was the best available source on prices.

A new website providing the actual price a property was sold for

On this website you can now check for how much a neighbour sold his house for ! https://app.dvf.etalab.gouv.fr/

This new government initiative to promote transparency allows you to check down to a town or even street level, the price of all property sales over the last 4 years, 2014-2018.

To use the website, click on a land plot and on the right will be displayed the price, size and address of the property. Also you can download all the sales in a given area into a file.

Professional advice still best

Despite all these new online tools, dozens of other factors impact the price of a property such as the quality and condition of the house, the situation, view, environment, etc…. As none of the above tools take all these factors into account, you will still be reliant on an estate agent or property finder to guide you.  Working for years in one area and covering dozens of sales, an estate agent can give you quite an accurate price. The unrealistic prices found on property portals are often due to sellers not following estate agent’s advice, and hoping that an uninformed buyer may pay more ! But with thousands of properties on display on the internet, it has become much easier for buyers to compare house prices.

So before you buy a property in France, get the objective advice of a property finder like Smartfinder Home, who works only in the interests of the buyer!