Paris: A Limited Market with Unlimited Potential for Investors

Hello everyone! 👋

In our previous and first English newsletter, we covered the main advantages of investing in France! 🇫🇷 Among my 20,000 followers, 2,000 subscribed and generated a lot of contacts! So thank you 🙏.

Today, we will cover Paris and its investment potential 🏙️. Although Paris’ population has dropped by 20% since 1914, the demand for rental accommodation keeps climbing 📈 and has reached a dramatic point!

To illustrate the situation, here are some numbers 📊:

• Paris has 1.4 million flats for a population of 2.1 million.
• In 1945, there were 1 million rental units. By 1980, that number dropped to 600,000. In 2024, it has shrunk to only 350,000.

What are the reasons? 🤔

• Paris is a limited area defined by the Peripherique boulevard. You’re in or you’re out 🛣️. Unlike London or Berlin, Paris doesn’t stretch out!
• No new construction since Baron Haussmann—150 years ago! No high rises 🏗️.
• Gentrification has caused the working class to move to the suburbs 🚇.
• A strong ownership trend: today, 85% of flats are owner-occupied 🏠.
• The transformation of flats into offices: This 1970’s trend is over, but the price gap makes reversing it nearly impossible 🏢➡️🏡.
• Small ‘Chambre de bonne’ maid quarters have been transformed into slightly larger units, reducing their numbers by 50%! 📉

As a logical consequence, while demand increases (students, remote working, more divorces), supply is dwindling rapidly 🏃.

As an investor, this situation is, of course, positive 💡, pushing up rents despite the usual attempts by the mayor to impose rent controls (which, in typical French fashion, no one follows 🤷♂️).

Since 2006, we’ve been helping investors like you secure quality properties that are rented to major corporations to host employees working in Paris for a few weeks or months 🏢➡️🏡. This offers a much higher return than renting to Parisians, and as we mentioned before, France offers long-term fixed-rate mortgages and zero tax on rental income! 💼💰

So think Paris if you’re in the investment mood! 🏙️✨

Christophe Tardivat

Founder Topfrogs Immobilier