House prices in France rose marginally last year according to the Notaires de France, although that is not a view shared by French estate agents.

According to the notaires, house prices outside of Paris remained relatively flat in the year, rising by an average of +0.5%.

Although only a modest the increase, it is a turnaround from the consecutive fall in prices reported by the notaires over the past three years, with prices down by -2.5% in 2014, -2.7% in 2013 and -2.1% in 2012.

This reported upward movement in 2015 is slightly at odds with the analysis offered by the leading estate agents chain Century 21, who consider prices fell on average by -0.6%.

Similarly, smaller national agents Guy Hoquet recorded a fall of -0.5%, whilst the Laforêt chain reported a larger fall of -1.6%.

The national association of estate agents, FNAIM, have ceased to provide any substantial market analysis, but estimate that prices fell on average by -2.1%.

However, a strict comparision between the figures from the notaires and the agents is difficult, for the later includes the movement in apartment prices as well as houses. The notaires estimate that apartment prices in the provinces fell by -0.9% last year.

There are also some significant differences between the notaires and the estate agents as to the movement in prices at a regional level, with Century 21 reporting more widespread falls in the regions than the notaires.

Despite the differences, in all cases the analysts consider that the market showed signs of firming up last year.

Significantly, total sales in the year were up by 16% on 2014, to over 800,000.

Most commentators attribute the increase in sales to the low level of mortgage interest rates, at around 2.5%, as well as the wider availability of government backed interest free mortgages for first-time buyers.

The departmental analysis provided by the notaires is given in the table below, which also shows the price changes for 2013 and 2014, together with the average house price in each department at the end of 2015.

The figures are indicative only, as there are substantial variations within each department by size, location and condition of property. Most of the transactions are also for properties at the lower end of the market.

In addition, as the analysis is drawn from transactions in the main urban areas of each department they do not reflect the movement in rural house prices. Drill down into the towns and villages of France and you will find larger movements in prices, both up and down, than are shown in the headline figures.

As can be seen from the table, whilst there remain substantial variations across the country, last year many departments recorded price increases. Whereas in 2014 only 11 departments saw prices rise, last year prices rose in 50 departments, albeit in most cases only by a small margin.

Nevertheless, price falls were recorded right across the three departments of Poitou Charentes, Limousin and Franche-Comté. In Limousin and Poitou Charentes prices have fallen in all three departments for the past three years.

The department of Creuse in the Limousin continues to have the lowest house prices in France, with a staggeringly low average of €60,000 per property.

Other departments where house prices average under €100,000 are Nièvre (€71,000) in Burgundy, Indre (€90,000) in the Centre region, Haute-Marne (€80,000) in Champagne-Ardenne, Allier (€90,000) in Auvergne, and Meuse (€92,400) in Lorraine.

Source: Notaires de France

*Some of you may have spotted that some of figures for 2014 are different to those you may have seen in our Newsletter last year. This is because the published figures only become definitive six months after publication following further analysis by the notaires. Accordingly, the figures for 2015 remain provisional!