Jean-Claude Annaert, Michaël Zingraf Christie’s International Real Estate
“We have been loyal clients for a very long time.”
The Michaël Zingraf Christie’s International Real Estate group consists of 28 wholly-owned agencies - ie. under the helmsmanship of the founding family - and five agencies under trademark license agreements.
The brand is active on the Côte d’Azur with 12 offices from Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat to Saint-Tropez, in Biarritz, Deauville, in the 3rd, 7th and 8th arrondissements of Paris, in Gstaad in Switerland, on the island of Mauritius, and one to open very soon in Cabourg. Michaël Zingraf has 130 employees and recorded a total of 196 transactions in 2022, and 145 in 2023, ie. 480 and
440 million euros of properties sold respectively.
Jean-Claude Annaert, General Manager of this group created in 1977 prefers the term “high end” rather than “luxury”. “A concept that takes on different forms depending on the addresses,” he explains.
“A property of 900 m2 in slightly over 2.5 acres of grounds, on the private, guarded estate of Les Parcs de Saint-Tropez, finds a taker at 22.5 million euros in the guise of a foreign buyer. While the Saint-Tropez peninsula draws a clientele 80 % international, Cannes is seeing this ratio decline to 60 %. Of 40 sales recorded in the last year, four were priced above 10 million euros, the sum required for a villa of 800 m2 in grounds of 8,000 m2. In Biarritz and Saint-Jean-de-Luz, make way for a mostly French clientele, with properties of 400 to 500 m2 ranging from 5 to 6 million euros. Since the rise in interest rates and the slowdown on the so-called classic market, the “high end” of the market has held its own, on condition that it proposes properties without any defects. As for the 1.5 to 3 million euros category, which met with difficulties in the 4th quarter of 2023, it has regained some buoyancy since the second quarter of 2024.”
