Property Trends 2012

Photo: guy harrop / Alamy  

French banks, following in the footsteps of American mortgage lenders, are making it harder for home buyers to get a loan. Expat borrowers and French residents alike are being told "non" unless they have very large deposits and lofty incomes. BNP Paribas, one of France's biggest lenders to expatriates, overhauled its mortgage range for non-residents and has cut loan-to-value ratios from 80% to 70%.  They've also chopped the terms on interest-only loans -- but then these loans have always struck me as a perfectly terrible way to borrow money.  French banks are being cautious and rejecting borrowers with loan debt exceeding six times their income.  This seems reasonable to me, but it could affect people with several buy-to-rent properties or even some first-time buyers.  But then again, perhaps someone so heavily leveraged should rent for awhile before taking on more debt.  Call me old fashioned.

Despite the tightened lending, borrowers with sufficient income and smaller debt can still get a loan and French mortgage rates continue to look attractive.  French residents, more conservative borrowers than Americans, tend to like long, fixed-term rates and the interest rate on a 25-year-term is now set at around 4.4%.  There's also something called a capped rate deal where borrowers are promised they will not pay more than 4.5% for the term of the loan and the current rate for these is just 3.5%.

Meanwhile, FrenchEntrée just published their annual property survey based on feedback from their network of immobiliers (real estate agents) and property finders across France.  A few interesting items jumped out at me from this year's report, which showed real estate sales pretty grim in some parts of country but lively in others:

• There seemed to be fewer buyers from the UK last year, except in the Alps and Cotes d'Azur, but this was made up for by French, Dutch and Belgian buyers.  Increased interest from Australian and American buyers also showed an uptick. 
• Paris had a stunning year with a 22% increase in property values in the first half of 2011, although that pace slowed significantly as the year progressed. The number of transactions was down, but only because there weren't any properties to sell.  The 3rd and 4th arrondissements were hot.  
• The Languedoc saw more American buyers, as well as people from Sweden, Norway, Denmark and, of course, French seeking homes. The region already has an enormous British community.  A lot of people are taking a look at the Languedoc, which borders Spain, because of the anticipated completion of the TGV link to Barcelona at the end of this year.  Travelers will be able to get from Perpignan to Barcelona in less than an hour. Tapas for lunch! 

With all the gloomy economic news out of Europe, this all looks rather encouraging.

A "Princely" Airport and a Stunning Work of Art

Aeroports de Paris, the operator of Paris' Charles DeGaulle and Orly, reported this week that airports in the French capital saw a 3.1% increase in passenger traffic in July compared with the same month of 2009.  

The numbers just reinforce the experience of anyone who has arrived at one of Paris' main airports  -- especially international travelers -- over the last few years.  The crowds are horrific, the terminals redolent with body heat and the panic of potential missed planes, everything feels rumpled and dirty and more than a little confusing. I do a lot of business travel besides my back and forth between houses in Texas and Provence, so I've had a lot of time to wonder why airports cannot be designed for humans, why they must be so consistently ugly, uncomfortable, and dehumanizing. The Paris airports are better than many, but I’ve begun looking for ways to avoid the biggest airports, the most popular travel days and the crowds. 

This summer, rather than flying Air France to DeGaulle, I flew British Airways through Heathrow to Lyon Saint-Exupéry, a train station and airport named after the author of "Le Petit Prince," Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.  I can't recall ever wanting to spend MORE time in an train station or airport -- but this is not a place to be rushed through and endured.  This is a destination, a small wonder, a work of art.  As art, it is not merely visually appealing, it evokes feelings and associations and memories. As the fox tells the Little Prince, "on ne voit bien qu'avec le coeur" ("one sees clearly only with the heart").  I realize I sound a little goofy waxing on about an airport but, really, this is something quite special.  

If Eero Saarinen's Dulles Airport terminal looks like an aircraft wing, Saint-Exupéry appears to be a marvelous, metal bird perched on a concrete field but ready for flight.  Designed by the world famous Spanish engineer and architect Santiago Calatrava, the train station connects directly to the main airport terminal and airport hotel. Calatrava's design was selected in open competition and built between 1989 and 1994. (Check out his current projects slated for New York, Chicago and Dallas.) Why more people don't use this lovely port of entry for coming and back and forth to France -- why I haven't used it until now -- is beyond me. Many of the fast TGV trains (train a grande vitesse) connecting Paris with Geneva and southern France stop at the Lyons Airport (as well as at the main station in central Lyons, Part Dieu), so for anyone traveling to Switzerland or points south, Lyon is far easier than going through Paris. The airport is an easy 20-minute cab ride from central Lyons, a lively, sophisticated, beautiful and underrated city built not along just one river like Paris, but two. 

On my way back to the States, I took the TGV to Lyon and had the surprising pleasure of a walk through the station, a lofty, exhilarating interior with windows like glass feathers and bones of steel. There was barely a soul in the entire place -- a couple of SNCF employees, a dozen passengers who rushed from train to plane, leaving me for a few minutes virtually alone. When I finally tore myself away, it took just two minutes to walk to the main terminal and an additional two minutes more to cross the small airport plaza to the NH Lyon Airport Hotel. Total time from station platform to registration desk, about 5 minutes.

The NH, by the way, is quite a bargain. For a little more than $100 (book ahead), I had a comfortable, clean, stylish room that overlooked the main terminal and was absolutely silent. Pleasant staff at the desk, nice deep tub, flat-panel TV, fluffy pillows.  Just about everything you could ask for in an airport hotel. Getting out the next morning was entirely stress-free. Paris is now my second choice as a place to enter France and catch the TGV. And the increase in passenger traffic at DeGaulle and Orly is only going to get worse, making Lyons an ever more attractive port of call.