Are we not saying that patience is the mother of all virtues? To buy a home, French peoplewant to take their time. Prospective purchasers thus visit an average of six properties before concluding a transaction, according to a Crédit Foncier study titled "Journey of acquisition of the principal residence: from dream to reality". They wait 4.7 months , on average, from the start of their search up to the signing of the sales agreement. A rather long duration because, usually, a house is sold between two to three months in France.
The larger the municipality, the more the number of visits increases. French households make 6.5 visits before buying in municipalities with more than 50,000 inhabitants, against 5.3 visits for cities with less than 5,000 inhabitants. The number of visits also depends on your area. Seven visits are required on average in Paris and the inner suburbs, compared with 6 visits in the North-East and South-East, and only 5 visits in the North-West and South-West.
After a year of research, barely two-thirds of French respondents said they had bought a home and more than a quarter (27%) continued their quests for houses or apartments. The others (8%) gave up. But among those who found their property, nearly one in five (18%) buyers had to exceed their budget. On average, the amount they disbursed is 13% higher than the original amount. This gap reached 22% in Ile-de-France.
And it's not over: besides the budget, the lucky owners, who for the most part probably had a tight budget, had to make other concessions. French respondents say they bought a smaller home than expected (28%), moved away from where they wanted to buy (22%) or acquired property with a plot or garden smaller than expected. Despite this, nearly one in two buyers (49%) still managed to negotiate a price decrease with the seller, on average 6% of the sales price displayed.Note that the Parisians are less demanding than the provincials, comprising 52% to say that they are ready to make sacrifices against 40% for the provincials.