The Figaro has published it's property price report, and Nice is up 4% as I expected. It is pretty uniform across the different areas if you exclude new builds, with the Carre d'Or up 4%, a one bedroom there now averages €7,670/sqm, and the Port and Old Town up 3% at around €6,300/sqm.
Electricity prices set to drop tomorrow. The government has set new tariffs which will see an average of a 15% decrease in energy bills for 70% of households in France. Great news for homeowners here.
The mayor bans cruise ships from Nice! Starting from 1st July cruise ships will no longer be allowed anywhere Mr Estrosi has juristiction, which include the Port of Nice and the Bay of Villefranche. He claims the ships pollute the sea and the "low cost" tourists add little to the city except the rubbish they leave behind.
Earthquake hits Nice! Apparently an earthquake, one of the strongest in memory measuring 3.7 on the Richter scale, hit Nice with the epicentre just off the coast between Nice and Monaco. It occurred Monday night around 10.30pm.
Two new direct flights to and from Nice coming this June from Easyjet: the Greek island of Santorina, and Lamezia Terme far down the south of Italy in Calabria. Prices start €35 and €42 respectively.
Ever wonder where your Taxe Fonciere goes? The Town Hall has published a breakdown, and points out we have one of the lowest rates in France. One really pleasing thing to see is around 1/3 is actually being spent on new investments in infrastructure and not just on costs.
We have seen a lot of fans of Nice across the mainstream media recently but I was not expecting the National Geographic! I have to credit the author Karlina. Many articles have me agreeing and disagreeing but this list is pretty solid.
The local agents are feeling the pinch of the property shortage in the Carre d'Or, one saying that a renovated property on rue de France will fetch €10k/m² these days. No shortage of holiday rentals there though. He says that there may not appear to be many properties for sale, they do come up regularly but sell almost immediately. This sounds about right to me.
Nice is France's safest city! City being their category with over 150,000 residents. If you include every single town in France no matter how small then it comes in at number 30, which is pretty good as Google tells me there are 35,000 of them.
Now the New York Times has a big long piece on Nice as the place to be. I am not sure I would follow the same itinerary but it gets more hits than misses. Do you agree with their choices?