Paris furnished rentals survey 2015

2015: Rents are stable and student numbers continue to rise

Rents for furnished lets in Paris remain steady in 2015, with an average rise of just 0.63% on the previous year. Modest rises have been seen across the capital. Rents are up 0.51% in the outer arrondissements (9 to 20) and up to 0.72% in central areas. These figures reflect underlying market trends.

Indeed, this is the third consecutive year of modest rent rises for furnished lets in Paris: up 0.36% between 2012 and 2013 and up 0.17% between 2013 and 2014. Based on this relative stability, it seems that the entry into force of rent controls last August has yet to significantly affect rents. How the situation will evolve in 2016 remains to be seen.

Asian demand boosts the furnished lets market

Overall, there has been little change in the geographical origin of tenants, with the EU and France remaining the largest group. One notable fact, however, is an increase in the number of Asian tenants (up 2.1%), in particular thanks to demand from the stronger Asian countries including China, Taiwan, South Korea and India.

This appears to be due to increasing student mobility. Asian students make up the largest group of international students enrolled in higher education institutions. France and Paris are popular with Chinese students, who either study in the capital short-term, for an exchange or a single semester, or long-term, over several years. In 2005, there were 15,000 Chinese students. Today, there are over 31,000¹.
There have also been more American and Canadian tenants this year.

Paris, the ideal student city

Tenants' reasons for coming to Paris have changed little, although studying (up 2.1%) has edged ahead of professional commitments. This wave of enthusiasm for Paris appears to be justified, as the French capital was crowned "Best student city in the world" for the fourth year running by the international agency Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) in a study published on 1 December 2015. Rankings are based on a number of criteria such as cost of studies, cost of living, pollution, employer presence and activity, student mix and liveability. Demand for furnished lets tracks this student demand. For example, over 12% of higher education students in France are from abroad, and at Sciences-Po the figure is even higher, at 46%.

Tenants also come to Paris to work (41.6%) and for other reasons (16.2%) such as major building work at home or a relative in hospital in the city.

¹Agence Campus France November 2014

Read more:

• Lodgis wins a 2015 FNAIM VIP Trophy!
• Property / Autumn 2015: an update from Lodgis on the summer's major reforms
• Rent controls: a long-awaited law but no benefits for either landlords or tenants
• As a landlord, what can you do to protect yourself against rent default?
• Selling a furnished let: a means to make a profit on an investment