Investors taking rising house prices to France

British holiday home buyers are contributing to French house price rises, according to new research.

13:50 26 July 2004

British holiday home buyers are contributing to French house price rises, according to new research.

Between 1995 and 2004, average prices in France rose 69 per cent, according to the French property lawyers' council - a modest figure compared with the 132 per cent rise in Britain over the same period, the Real Estate news website reports.

And the surge in French property prices has begun to provoke worries that in the era of low-cost airlines the Channel will not be enough to contain the spread of UK property inflation.

In the year to December, the average price of an apartment rose 14.2 per cent, and the average house showed a 10.6 per cent gain.

Prices in Paris are up as much as 15 per cent year-on-year and close to their peaks before the 1991 property crash that floored French home owners for half a decade.

This spring, the year-on-year rate in France was running ahead of Britain.