French property prices fall for first time since 2015

01/06/2023

Housing prices have dropped for the first time in eight years in France. Sales in Paris have seen the biggest decrease, while prices have remained fairly stable in the south of France.

According to a report put out by France’s statistical agency INSEE ealier this week, housing prices in the first quarter of 2023 fell by -0.2%. Though only slight, this is the first time that prices have decreased since the second quarter of 2015.

The Paris region, including its suburbs, took the biggest hit, with -1.1% drop. Nationwide, flat prices decreased by -0.1% and houses by -0.2%, though when broken down region-by-region, the picture is a bit more mixed.

Locally, for example, the prices of apartments in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur (PACA) region have seen a marginal rise of 0.9% in 2023 so far, led by Marseille, which recorded a 1.9% rise. The price of houses, on the other hand, saw a -0.3% fall.

The Hauts-de-France, France’s northernmost region, is seeing a mini-boom, with prices for flats going up by 1.4%. This is tempered, however, by prices for houses contracting by -1.2%.

Lower prices, less transactions

In the first quarter of 2023, the volume of sales was also on the downturn. At the end of March, the annual number of transactions over the past 12-month period was estimated at 1,069,000. It was 1,115,000 at the end of December 2022, after almost a year of consistent decreases.

The report also said that the proportion of transactions of available dwellings was 2.8% of the total stock, and is higher than pre-pandemic numbers, and even exceeded the high levels observed in the early 2000s, when it sat at 2.6%.

A different world

Buyer behaviours since the health crisis are thought to have changed the market. Real estate is adapting itself to new banking conditions, notably with higher interest rates, as well as economic trends in the form of high inflation and unpredictable energy prices.

Despite the uncertainties, the general feeling in the sector is that prices are stable, and that a repeat of anything akin to the 2008 subprime crisis is not likely.

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Photo source: Unsplash

Sailing: Team Malizia set 24-hour world record in The Ocean Race

by: Luke Entwistle

01/06/2023

Team Malizia, racing under the colours of the Monaco Yacht Club, sailed 641.13 nautical miles in 24 hours. breaking the world record during Round Five of The Ocean Race on Monday.

Travelling at an average speed of 26.71 knots (around 50km/h), Boris Herrmann’s Team Malizia has sent the world record of covering the most distance in a monohull over a 24-hour period, which had been previously held by the boat Comanche, tumbling.

Team Malizia, on board the Malizia-Seaexplorer, are now in strong contention to win The Ocean Race and are currently racing across the Atlantic Ocean, heading back towards Europe.

Regardless of the outcome, the adventure has been an unqualified success: the Monegasque team has already won the Roaring Forties Trophy (fastest Cape of Good Hope to Cape Horn passage), won the long Southern Ocean leg and have now immortalised their journey with a world record.

“It’s a sailor’s dream”

“Being the fastest monohull in the world in 24 hours is the dream of every sailor. I am so proud of the team and all the work that has been done to get here,” said Pierre Casiraghi, Team Malizia co-founder and the vice-president of the Yacht Club de Monaco.

Co-skipper Rosalin Kuiper added, “We pushed and proved to the world that we have the fastest boat in the world. It is an incredible feeling, a sailor’s dream, for me this has more meaning than anything else, it is a very special moment.”

Herrmann described the conditions, which allowed Team Malizia to break the record, as “exceptional”. He will be hoping that that doesn’t change as they race towards Aarhus, where they are expected to make landfall on Monday.

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Photo source: Yacht Club de Monaco

Basketball: Monaco one win away from Betclic Elite final, but performance prompts post-match Sasa Obradovic rant

by: Luke Entwistle

01/06/2023

The Betclic Elite final is within touching distance for AS Monaco Basketball as they doubled their advantage (2-0) in the five-game series against Bourg-en-Bresse thanks to a narrow and unconvincing victory (105-99) on Wednesday night.

The gap in quality wasn’t as evident as it was during Monday night’s victory (96-79) against the same opponent. Bourg-en-Bresse knew they were fighting for their place in the competition, and that desperation for a result showed.

Neither side managed to stem the flow of points in the first quarter, but Bourg-en-Bresse could rely on the impressive precision of James Palmer (21 points) outside the key (3/3 in Q1), whilst in both phases of play, it was Bourg who were first to the ball (8 rebounds to Monaco’s 3).

Mike James (19 points) was working his magic, but it wasn’t enough to allow the Roca Team to make up their first-quarter deficit before the half-time buzzer (49-55).

Bourg blown away on the return from the dressing room

Monaco, however, have the individual quality to turn a game in minutes, and that’s what happened early in the third quarter. Carried by Élie Okobo (20 points) and Alpha Diallo (16 points), the Roca Team made the break, scoring 21 points in the first five minutes of the second half.

Bourg-en-Bresse were wounded, but not defeated, and Monaco couldn’t stop them from crawling back into the game. Okobo looked to have killed the game off with a swift counter deep in the fourth quarter, but a six-point unreplied streak gave Bourg hope of an unlikely win (97-95).

However, Monaco’s quality and experience showed in money time. Diallo gave Monaco breathing space before John Brown III (11 points) killed the game with an emphatic dunk, which lifted everyone in the Salle Gaston Médecin to their feet.

This wasn’t a classic Monaco performance, but the result is a crucial one, and one which puts Sasa Obradovic’s side within one win of back-to-back Betclic Elite finals, not that that was of great consolation to the Serbian coach, who was furious with his team.

A wake-up call for Monaco

“The most important thing is to be 2-0 up. We knew it wouldn’t be the same, the aggression, their ball rotations. I said [the performance] was unacceptable, I said it multiple times, because maybe our focus was somewhere else. It hurts me,” said Obradovic.

He added, “With big respect to this Bourg team, if you don’t come with the physicality and mental focus, you give them a chance, and we gave them a chance. You can’t concede almost 100 points to this team, you cannot. I want to play defence to win the title. Maybe we needed this kind of game as an alarm, a warning, and it’s an unbelievable warning. If you play like this, you won’t win, it’s very simple.”

Bourg will be fighting for their lives in the third game of the series on Saturday, and Obradovic will be hoping for the result, and the performance to match, to get the job done.

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Photo by Luke Entwistle, Monaco Life

Day: 1 June 2023