Fundamentals for French retail property are still relatively strong

According to Agents’ reports, prime retail rental values have yet to fall in France. While this is far from unique within the euro-zone, recent consumer confidence and retail sales data show the fundamental drivers of the retail property market in France remain relatively healthy. Rising unemployment presents a risk to our forecasts but, on balance, we still envisage that retail rental values will fall less far in France than in most other euro-zone markets.