2009-07-17 14:43:34 - France is currently the third most popular in the Property Abroad.com chart of the most popular destinations with overseas property buyers, according to their figures for June.

France has always been a very popular destination with overseas property buyers, but in recent months it had dropped out of the PA chart, but the increased interest isn't tending to translate into increased sales, but this is expected the change gradually throughout the year, according to Les Calvert, portal director.

"The established property markets of Europe, including France have suffered

the most from the crunch, and people are out there looking for bargains. Unfortunately for France, property sales have only really declined in the last few months and prices have held pretty firm. Analysts on the ground think prices will start to fall later this year, at which point the bargain hunters will start to find what they are looking for," he said.

Meanwhile there is a lot of conflicting messages about the state of the French economy:

An article on a blog over at NuWire investor this week congratulated France for its efficiency in getting the money allocated for its stimulus package out into the pockets of the people, although it did note the controversial way they have done this; having all their monuments and castles given facelifts and polish-ups. And we have reports that French industrial output unexpectedly rose in May for the first time in 9 months.

On the other hand French unemployment is growing as fast as anywhere in Europe, in fact the UK and France are suffering worst in the employment stakes.

At the moment the people looking to buy French property are predominantly lifestyle buyers, who don't tend to care too much about the economy, so they will snap-up their bargains later this year regardless.