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10th April 2008 |

The recent vibes that France is offering an island of comparative strength, stability and promise in a stormy sea have been well documented, but the country, it seems, has not just remained strong enough to keep its position in the market. It has, it has been said, gone further still and is attracting back the money which has spent the last few years being spent on the brave new worlds of less familiar locations.

Such a situation is the one described by Louise Hall, business director at property investment website Primelocation.com. She stated that after a few years in which places such as eastern Europe attracted investors looking for a fast return on a rapid boom when such countries joined the European Union, the investors are now switching back to the old favourites.

She observed: "A lot of the people who had invested in places like eastern Europe are now selling up and going back into familiar locations, such as France, Spain and so forth."

While some of this may be down to the eastern markets being saturated or simply not as good as was hoped, it may simply be a case of the appeal of favourite destinations. Discussing France, Ms Hall commented that it was "hard to discern" how much of the buying of French property was for investment purposes. What she was sure of, however, was the areas that are most popular, such as the Mediterranean Coast, which, she suggests, may only be partially affected by the liquidity crisis that has hit so hard elsewhere.

"Although the Cote d'Azur and the whole of south-eastern region has always been very popular and hasn't been affected to date by worldwide issues such as the credit crunch, I think that may have an effect in terms of general movement and because prices are so high there," she commented.

However, the area is still "quite strong" because a lot of British money is still going there, whereas, she noted, while some areas saw many Britons priced out they simply looked to other, less expensive areas, such the Dordogne.

Of course, the issue which may find many investors looking to France is the projections for growth that outstrip may of its neighbours. French property specialists VEF announced today that figures from FNAIM, the largest estate agency federation in France, had revealed a 3.1 per cent rise in prices across the country in the first quarter, with Provence and the Alps doing better still at 5.3 per cent.

The firm has advised those who are looking to invest to do so quickly, as the value of sterling is continuing to decline against the euro.

It may well be that the return of investors to France is a reflection of this trend, with buyers looking to take advantage of a window of opportunity. Or it may just be that if France is the safe option just now, a risky adventure in the unknown waters of some of the new markets is something few will want to undertake.