The luxury of a terrace in Paris
Highly coveted, apartments with terraces are rare commodities in city centres, even more so in Paris. A dream for urban-dwellers deprived of space and greenery, which inevitably comes at a price ! Overview of these outdoor areas offering an intimate glimpse of the town and a bonus in terms of life-style.
Most often nestling on the top floors of buildings, terraces, those practical extensions open to the sky, must be of a certain size to be worthy of the name. They come in two kinds, as explained by Charles Daireaux, director of the estate-agency Mercure Paris Ile de France, which specializes in prestige properties : “A distinction should first be drawn between a terrace on the same floor as the apartment and a roof-terrace. The first usually prolongs the lounge, offering the owners extra comfort, a certain spontaneity, and real added value for the property. In some cases, it may also be an extension of the bedroom, making it less attractive. As for the roof-terrace reached either by stairs or a ladder, it is “de facto” a more complicated proposition. Less easy to enjoy, even if it doubles the number of sq. metres and has been laid out as a garden, the roof-terrace is less highly-prized than one on the same floor as the apartment. In both versions, other factors must be taken into account : size, exposure, the view and, above all, whether or not it is overlooked. A crucial point, as the quest for a terrace includes the desire for an outdoor area but, above all, a notion of privacy that is spoilt by any visual intrusion”.
In Paris, a city that boasts a high number of Haussmann buildings and others much older, terraces are rare and thus comprise a relatively limited market. Both terraces and roof-terraces belong to the panoply of assets proposed by post-war and contemporary buildings. So where can you find apartments with terraces in Paris ? Madame Catherine Piguet, founder of Alma Immobilier, specializing in the very high end of the market and outstanding properties in the most prestigious neighbourhoods, sheds light on the subject : “In the 16th arrondissement, this type of apartment is easier to find, and in some very lovely configurations. The closer one gets to the centre of Paris, the harder it becomes to find apartments with terraces : they are extremely rare in Haussmann buildings. There are, however, a few exceptions, worth their weight in gold, in the 7th arrondissement, part of the 8th, the famous “Golden Triangle”, around Les Tuileries and on the Ile Saint Louis. There are also some very enviable examples in Neuilly, Neuilly Bois and Neuilly Saint James, suburban areas next to the 16th and 17th arrondissements, popular among Parisians in search of a certain life-style, who do not hesitate to move in. An apartment with a terrace is the dream of both Parisians and other Frenchmen living in the capital as their main home. Foreign clients are less keen as they focus more on going out and the appeal of living in Paris. They see a terrace as representing extra maintenance”.
A property blessed with a terrace naturally implies additional cost, assessed on the basis of several criteria. A terrace is always very expensive, but never calculated at the same price per sq. metre as the living accommodation. Jean-François Fabre, director of the Haussmann Invest agency specializing in prestige properties and luxury apartments, explains : “A terrace is not looked upon as living space. The price of an apartment is always calculated on the basis of its indoor surface area. To set the price, the surface area of the terrace is not included as such, though it is valued as per certain criteria : the environment, whether it is overlooked or not, its exposure, accessibility, the indoor/outdoor ratio. All these factors help to set a weighting co-efficient of 0.3 to 0.5%. In other words, you start with the apartment’s price per sq. metre, for example 10,000 €. If it has a terrace of 20 m2, this figure will be weighted by half depending on its characteristics, and the resulting amount will be added to the price of the apartment. The legal definition of a terrace also counts in the overall evaluation, as most of the time it is considered as part of the communal premises, and thus dependent on co-ownership regulations, but with exclusive use”.
