Paris: Resilience amid uncertainty

Over the past six years, the city has endured a global pandemic, political instability with six prime ministers holding office, rising fiscal concerns, a global trade war and played host to the 2024 Olympics. Against this backdrop, Paris has not only held firm, but it has also broadened its appeal, attracting a more diverse buyer base, bolstered, until recently, by a weak euro.

Prices hold, volumes decline

Since the start of the pandemic, average prime property prices have risen 12%, climbing from €20,370 to €22,730 per square metre. Yet sales volumes have softened. In the second half of 2024, Paris’s Chamber of Notaires reports that just 12,220 properties changed hands – fewer than during the first half of 2020, when pandemic-related restrictions largely froze the market. This dynamic reflects a buyer’s market, though primarily within the resale apartment sector.

Strength in premium segments

In contrast, developers and vendors still hold the advantage in key luxury segments: new builds, pied-à-terres, and hôtel particuliers.

In the new homes sector, a shortage of new stock continues to push prices higher, with fewer than 2,000 new homes completed annually in Paris in recent years.

Pied-à-terres remain in high demand. The average price for such properties sold by Knight Frank’s partners in Paris, Junot Fine Properties, reached €7.6 million in 2024. With an average size of 235 square metres, and an average price of €33,833 per square metre, half of these sales were to Chinese buyers.

Hôtel particuliers, Paris’s grand mansions, remain rare. Only six sold in 2024, with one fetching nearly €50,000 per square metre and another, selling for €33 million. Since the pandemic, wealthy French buyers have renewed interest in these spacious properties with outdoor areas. In 2025 two big ticket hôtel particuliers have already been sold in the 7th arrondissement, one for €55 million and the other for €100 million.

Global wealth in motion

Seven eurozone interest rate cuts – and more expected – are creating renewed momentum. As global uncertainty rises and wealth becomes more mobile, Paris is emerging as a stable, known market for investors. Political changes elsewhere are also fuelling demand: the return of President Trump to the White House, the UK’s scrapping of its non-dom regime, and Italy’s doubling of its flat tax are driving enquiries.

In Knight Frank’s 2024 European Lifestyle Report, a survey of 750 high-net-worth individuals across 28 nationalities ranked Paris as the top European city for relocation. Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, and the Post-War generation all ranked Paris as their preferred European city destination.

Domestic demand in Paris remains subdued. Many French buyers remain locked into low-rate mortgages and are hesitant to sell. But with borrowing costs now falling sharply, early signs of renewed local activity are emerging.