France 'not a boom-bust market'

The French property market is still seeing prices rise, new figures have indicated.

Knight Frank's Global House Price Survey figures for the second quarter of 2008 revealed that during that period the annual rate of house price growth in the country was 3.2 per cent.

Although this was less than the rate seen a year earlier, it compares favourably with a number of other European markets which the survey shows have taken a tumble.

Despite this rise, France remains much cheaper than the UK, French property specialist firm VEF has noted.

The company stated this week that French prices are just 60 per cent of those in the UK, while the market also offers more stability.

It explained that this is due to the application of higher deposits and stricter lending criteria, which in turn have led to less negative equity and speculative lending than has occurred elsewhere.