“Better to lose a little today than a lot tomorrow”: -4 to 5% in Nantes and Lyon, -1% in Paris... The fall in property prices is starting slowly in the face of the rise in interest rates

The fall in real estate prices this time seems to be fully taking shape. But the question now is to know in what proportion and for how long. According to the price variation index of the Notaries of France and INSEE, prices concluded between sellers and buyers fell by 0.8% in France in the second quarter of 2026 over one year, more markedly for individual houses (-1.3%) compared to apartments (-0.1%).

This is explained by the acceleration in the rise in real estate loan rates: the higher the level of bank interest, the more the purchasing power of buyers is reduced. And today, rates have fully accelerated: they are now between 3.5 and 5% over 25 years, depending on the banks and profiles. This acceleration forces sellers to revise their selling prices downward.

As a general rule, “an increase of 1 point in credit rates represents around 8% less financial capacity”, which is “significant, without being prohibitive” for buying, underlines Gabriel Pacheco, co-founder president of the SAFTI network of real estate agents. -1 to -5% over one year This trend is slowly starting to be felt in real estate advertisements. According to the latest data from the professional network Bien'ici, the drop in prices has started well.

Properties put up for sale in Nantes, Rennes, Angers, Lyon, Grenoble, Bordeaux and Saint-Étienne saw their prices drop by 4% to 5% compared to the same period a year ago. Also count -1.5% to -3.5% in Montpellier, Toulouse, Dijon and Le Havre over one year. Paris is not escaping this trend with a more modest decline in property ad prices of 1.1% over one year.

Other cities, however, continue to see their prices rise. Their common point: they are all by the sea like Nice (+2.1%), but also Marseille (+0.3%), Toulon (+1.3%) and Boulogne-sur-Mer (+10.6%). If these are only displayed prices, real estate agents also confirm the entry into a bearish phase.

“For the moment, with identical characteristics and locations, properties are selling 1% to 2% cheaper than at the start of the year,” says Aurélien Denéchère, head of 27 L’Adresse agencies, most of which are in Maine-et-Loire. According to him, the drop in prices has only just begun. “The signals are there: we have a supply of housing for sale which has increased significantly since the start of the school year in September,” he observes.

At the same time, “contacts made by potential buyers have fallen by around 20% over the last two months”. Beware of sales deadlines In this situation, it will be necessary to pay close attention to the evolution of the deadlines for selling real estate. Because we have seen it in recent years: goods displayed at too high a price struggle, for some, to find buyers.

Machine-translated from French