Last March Thionville caused a sensation nationwide by appearing as “the most profitable city in France” in the ranking published by the start-up Masteos, which specializes in turnkey rental investments. Attractive and increasingly expensive, the commune of 41,000 undeniably presents a tense real estate environment. But the vast majority of buyers are not looking to speculate, but simply to find accommodation.
“The city is sought after for its proximity to Luxembourg, but also for its dynamism and its solid economic fabric. Prices have risen considerably, but the market remains healthy, “said Maître Aurélie Conradt, a notary in Thionville.
Effervescence along the Moselle
To meet the demand for housing by limiting uncontrolled urban sprawl, the municipality has launched a large urban project on the right bank of the Moselle. In the heart of the city, 1,300 housing units will be built on an area of 15 hectares. The first deliveries are expected around the station, which is visited by three million travelers every year.
On the left bank, the former Etilam steel plant is expected to host more than a thousand integrated housing units of 4,000 m in the medium term2 of shops and 7,000 m2 tertiary activities.
As part of the new urban renewal program, the Roses district is moving north of the city.
Pedestrian, modernized and equipped with a dense and dynamic commercial platform, the city center (already very busy before the health emergency) has seen the price of its apartments increase by 10% in the last two years. The increase is even more spectacular for homes, whose prices have sometimes jumped by 40%.
“The old pavilions, well maintained and spread over five or six ares, saw their price go from 320,000 to almost 500,000 euros. The surge in the prices of these goods is linked to the new search criteria for post-Covid-19 buyers, for the most part frontier workers who wish to benefit from an individual pavilion and no longer live in collective housing. There is also an imbalance between supply and demand, more pronounced for pavilions than for other types of properties, “says Maître Conradt.
Luxembourg buyers
The phenomenon is certainly due to Covid-19, which has exacerbated the desire for a garden, but also to the arrival of new buyers on the Thionville real estate market. Many Luxembourgers cross the border to settle on the French side, as the price of real estate has become inaccessible for the Grand Ducal middle classes.
“By arriving on the Thionville real estate market with comfortable contributions, these buyers have pushed up prices, encouraging French cross-border commuters to switch to the Metz sector,” confirms Maître Conradt.
Indeed, the villages on the outskirts of Thionville are even more popular – and even more expensive – than in the heart of the agglomeration. In countries located near the Luxembourg border or near the A31 motorway, “commuter” couples commonly buy small new houses built on pocket handkerchiefs for € 400,000.
In the event of a divorce, notaries register more sales than shares: in such a particular context, it is rare for one spouse to want to redeem the other’s share.
