The real estate market has seen many changes in recent years: PINEL1 law, Denormandie2 law, cities become popular, the evolution of desires and lifestyles. 
A desire for change? A new real estate project? To change region? There is a beginning to everything. The first question to ask yourself, in this new project, is when to do it? We tell you everything 
Investing in real estate, different types of property
We will distinguish several types of real estate investment :
1) Purchase of a main residence/ a second home
2) Rental purchase:
A. Renting naked3
The French are willing to buy their principal residence sooner and later. According to a Harris Interactive survey for Notaries of France, the average age of first-time buyers is 32 in 2019, compared to 36 in 2015.
According to the same study, the French still consider real estate as a very interesting investment. 85% of respondents think that it is never too early to invest in real estate when 72% believe that it is necessary to be a homeowner before retirement.
Depending on your project, there is a seasonality for the rental date of the property.
B. The furnished rente4: student/ young active/ roommate/ senior residence
Important information: The rents of the furnished rental are 15 to 20% higher (depending on the geographical areas) than those of the bare rental.
C. Short term rental5
Seasonality of occupancy of rental properties
Students/ young workers : Usually, when we want to address this target, we invest in a small area housing. The period of high demand for this type of property is over the summer period (July and August mainly) since students, in particular, are looking for accommodation for the beginning of September.
Renting his property, in particular, to students have many interests, especially due to the demand for very strong housing. Students are not very demanding and there is little risk of unpaid rent (especially because they have different resources at their disposal such as social assistance housing, for example, or one or more parents as guarantors)
Colocation : The preferred dwellings for a colocation are usually T3/T4 type dwellings. For properties intended to be shared, it is the same temporality as for housing for students/ young active.
Seasonal rental : Let’s take the example of a cottage in the mountains, the period of high demand concerns the months of December, January, February and March. In the case of an apartment by the sea, the period of high demand concerns the months of June, July, August or September.
These different cases prove that depending on your investment project, the timing of demand is to be largely taken into account. The goal is that your property is ready to meet the high demand period concerned. The seasonal rental has several interests with rents higher than 2/3 times those of the bare rental or the fact that there is little degradation, since the tenants come on vacation and they are little present during the day.
Bare/short-term rental : Here there is no question of seasonality as for the previous types of property that must be ready for identified periods of the year. The goal is that your property is rented, over the longest possible period.
The best time to invest depending on the project
1. Seasonal rental projects/ students – young active people – colocation: Given the periods of high demand according to the types of property, starting your research and visits over the months of October/ November is a good thing.
Why ?
In winter, we are no longer at home, it is night earlier, the weather is not always mild, the holidays are approaching…
Winter is the season when you tend to spend more (gifts, etc), so there is less idea of real estate investment. The prospect of a visit of a property at the exit of work gives more envy to the month of May than in the middle of December.
So this winter is the best time to do good business. There will be less competition. With fewer people buying, you can get a better price.
Following this, we can project that the signing of the sales agreement takes place in December and January.
Advice: When buying the property with the help of financing, it is necessary to take into account a minimum duration of 4 months with the French banks.
The signing of the authentic act and financing are thus on the months of February, March and April.
This period allows to carry out the renovation and/ or refreshment work (2-3 months).
Another tip: Furnished rental customers appreciate properties with a beautiful decoration. Do not hesitate to call on one. Decorator.rice/ interior designer, this can be a plus!
In conclusion, your property will be ready for the months of June and July.
2. House/apartment project for rent naked:
The temporality will be the same because here, we target families. They don’t want to disrupt the school schedule for children, for example, or avoid moving during exams…. It is therefore often that the moves are rather in summer.
Conclusion
A real estate investment project, whether for his main residence or in the rental, it is reflected, not only in financial terms, also on the optimal period to do it! We observe after analysis that the last quarter is the best period. Of course, these tips are to adapt according to your project and need.
DEFINITIONS:
1 Pinel Act : The Pinel device—also known as the Pinel Act, Sylvia Pinel, Minister of Housing in the Valls I and II governments — is a provision of the French General Tax Code introduced by the Finance Law 20151 that offers an opportunity to benefit from an income tax reduction during a rental investment if the investor undertakes to rent the unit as a principal residence for a minimum period of six years. The purpose of this provision is to encourage taxpayers to invest in new real estate or in future state of completion, or LMNP (Furnished Rental in Non-professional).
2 Denormandie Law : The Denormandie scheme allows you to benefit from a tax reduction if you make a rental investment in a degraded old district. This housing must be located in certain municipalities, called «heart of city».
3 Bare rental : Bare rental is equivalent to an unfurnished rental. Renting naked is characterized by renting a property without furniture or equipment other than those that appear as essential (such as kitchen, closet, bathroom, etc.). In terms of naked rental, the property can be an apartment or a house.
4 Furnished rental : To be considered furnished, a rental accommodation must include at least some furniture. This meets annual income thresholds.
5 Short-term rental : Action to rent, more than once during the same year, a private part (usually an accommodation) for a period of less than one year, such as a rental per night, week or month, to a transient clientele who does not establish their principal residence there. The fact of renting to such a clientele a private part intended for residential use (residential destination), repeatedly, and for short periods, constitutes a change of destination, under certain conditions.