Real estate picks up in Brittany: buoyant breeze blows through Brest

There are more and more bargains to be had in Brest, with prices remaining low in most areas of town. After three years of falling prices and dropping sales volumes, the slight reboot experienced during the spring seems to be settling in.

In Brest, Brittany — a historic city lying close to France’s westernmost point — property sellers have been cutting prices in most neighborhoods of the bustling university town. Prices continue their steady decrease in the city-center and on the outskirts of town, where houses are increasingly available to first-time buyers.

With the average price per square meter for apartments in Brest having fallen to 1,560 euros — excluding new builds, which cost 2,620 euros per square meter — buying a home has become accessible to all budgets.

Many young families and first-time buyers are perusing advertised properties once again. In fact the median age of buyers in Brest is the lowest of its region: 39 years old against 45 years in the Finistère department, with under 30s comprising 37% of transactions.

Löic Lecuyer, head of the regional council of notaires — Notaires de l’Ouest — states in his latest real estate barometer of prices that the “property market in Brittany has become attractive once again, prices have fallen and interest rates remain low. The increased activity we had observed earlier in the year has set in since the spring.” He adds that the notaires in the region are “optimistic for 2016.” They expect prices to remain stable, the market to recover and a renewed balance between supply and demand to emerge.

Part of Western Brittany’s largest metropolis — which ranks third in size behind Nantes and Rennes in the region — Brest recently came second in a tally of 37 French cities worth investing in. According to the study by Meilleurtaux, buying property in the bretonne city becomes more attractive than renting after only a year and a half. As a point of comparison, a property purchase in Paris takes 14.5 years to be more profitable than renting.

Photo credit: Wikipedia / HaguardDuNord