The rise in property prices has, of course, not spared Bordeaux. Between 2015 and 2019, the price per square meter rose from 3,410 euros to 4,722 euros, according to figures from the LPI-SeLoger barometer. If the city experienced a lull in 2019, prices have started to rise again since. A phenomenon that is not surprising, in a metropolis which has been located two hours from Paris by TGV since 2016, often at the top of the rankings of cities where life is good.
As a result, home ownership is increasingly difficult, even for the wealthiest households. “What we may have underestimated is the difficulty, even for executives, of succeeding in finding accommodation”, explains Stéphane Pfeiffer, deputy mayor of Bordeaux in charge of the public housing and habitat service. “You are a couple, you are 35 years old, two children … To buy an apartment or a house with a garden in Bordeaux, you really need a lot of resources”, he continues.
For example, a Bordeaux stone house, 3 bedrooms, 120 m2 with a terrace in the Capucins district can sell for 596,000 euros. In question, “Parisians, who want to leave the capital and find themselves in smaller cities, arrive with very large budgets and drive up prices”, explains Laetitia Varennes, real estate consultant for Realy Smart, the prestige branch of the Human Immobilier group.
“Forced to move away”
Many Bordeaux residents take the opportunity to sell their property “At unexpected prices”, develop Mme Varennes. “But after selling, they don’t have the budget to buy in Bordeaux, and they have to move away to have something at least as good as what they left. “
To find accommodation, it is now necessary to expatriate at least beyond the ring road, or even the right bank, long shunned by Bordeaux residents because it is more difficult to access and particularly congested. Especially since after the Covid-19 pandemic “Everyone is looking for the same thing, a townhouse with an exterior, and access to the tram or the bus”.
Others move further away, into the adjoining countryside, in order to leave the bustle of the city. But the transition can be difficult. This is the case of Aude Scrivante, a 33-year-old psychologist, and her partner, Nicolas. After three years spent in Langoiran, half an hour from Bordeaux, the young couple decided to sell their house with garden, tired of making the daily trips in traffic jams to go to work in Bordeaux. “It’s clear, we will be much smaller, sighs Aude Scrivante. But we will no longer have to take the car for the slightest activity. Living in the countryside is pretty on the postcard, but it’s not easy for social life. “
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