Paris’s commercial property market is emerging from its worst year for investment in at least a decade as falling prices revive demand from French insurers and German mutual funds.

An agreement to sell the €300m Triangle de l’Arche building in La Defense in July was the city’s biggest deal in two years. Even before that, sales jumped 77% to €778m in the second quarter from the first, the most in 21 months, according to Immostat, a venture formed by four of France’s largest brokers.

Paris is attracting property investors, particularly cash buyers, after prices dropped as much as 40% in the past 20 months. Landlords in the prime central business districts near the Avenue des Champs-Elysees, the Opera house and La Defense can now expect rental income equal to 6% of building values or more, compared with about 4% at the end of 2007, Jones Lang Lasalle estimates.

bloomberg.com