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Weather Hinders South of France Property Market - 9 March 2010

The real estate market in the South of France isn’t faring as well as economists predicted.

One uncalculated variable: the weather. It seems realtors are getting less than a quarter of the listings they were expecting this winter, as homeowners are now waiting until the sky clears to put their properties up for sale. The South of France, known for its beautiful beaches and perpetual sunshine, has received relentless precipitation since January. Last month, it also snowed in Cannes for the first time in 30 years.

This has made for a rough start to what was supposed to be a promising 2010 in French real estate. In 2009, many more southern homes sold than they did in 2008, and this year, the numbers were only supposed to get better.

Also contributing to sour market is the lack of buyers for luxury properties. Only the very wealthy can buy villas that start in the hundred of millions, and many of these buyers have come from Russian and Arab countries in the past. But as the recession continues to leave most of the world financially crippled, even the most prosperous investors are tightening their belts.

On the French Riviera, prices for luxury homes have gone down from $15,000 to $25,000 per square meter and still have no one is biting. This has scared potential sellers from putting their homes on the market, causing them to wait for the sunshine to appear and the rest of world to recover from the recession to avoid suffering any significant losses.

Realtors are now predicting that with brighter skies ahead, the market will pick up this spring, and luxury homeowners will begin to put their hopes into overseas buyers from more stable economies like China.

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