BIG ESTATE AGENTS OPEN ON FRENCH RIVIERA

Glamour versus austerity

Four international estate agencies opened offices, formed affiliations or acquired local estate agencies on the French Riviera between March and June this year – Savills, Knight Frank, Chesterton Humberts and Christies International Real Estate. The agents say the French Riviera's luxury housing market is benefiting from a domino effect with a growing number of increasingly wealthy international HNWIs buying a home in London and then wanting a place on the Cote d'Azur.

But with the French economy stalled, President Hollande raising taxes and the eurozone in crisis, how well timed is this move to the Med? Some estate agents and buyers agents who have been operating on the Riviera for a while say they would be busier sitting on the beach this summer, because so few buyers are around. But other agents say business is good, so it is not clear which way the market is headed in the short term.

The longer term must surely be bright. Times may be rocky now, but they were worse during World War Two, and the Riviera recovered from that, so why not this time? The Cote d'Azur is and will remain one of the most glamorous places in the world. When the eurozone crisis is finally resolved, estate agents, letting agents and buyers agents will be far too busy to even contemplate spending summer on the beach.

The leaves unanswered the big question of “how long must we wait for the good times?”. Nobody knows. It could be months, but more likely years, and it brings to mind Warren Buffett's advice to stock buyers which must hold true for the housing market - “Only buy something that you'd be perfectly happy to hold if the market shut down for 10 years.” Hopefully, it won't be that bad.