Brits main foreign buyers of French property

Fewer foreigners bought property in France last year than had done the year before, new figures show.

According to the latest figures from Notaires, overseas buyers made up just 1 per cent of French property sales in 2015 compared to 1.4 per cent in 2014. The number of overseas buyers in France has dropped almost threefold in the last decade, from a high of 2.8 per cent a year in 2006, prior to the economic crisis.

British buyers make up the majority of overseas buyers, purchasing some 32.6 per cent of all foreign bought property in 2015.

The most popular areas for British buyers are Normandy, Brittany, the Dordogne and the Loire, although Brits are responsible for buying just 7 per cent of foreign owned property in Paris.

In Normandy and Brittany some 72 per cent of overseas buyers are British, while they account for 78 per cent of properties to sold to foreigners in the area covering the Loire and Dordogne.

After Brits, the next most common nationalities buying French property are Italians, at 15.3 per cent and Belgians at 11.1 per cent.