Does Size Matter?

What’s the average size of a Paris property?

Well, according to a study done by the Notaires of Paris-Ile-de-France, if you’re living in more than 56m2, then you’re living in an apartment above the average! Home owners in the Ile de France are living in an average house size of 102m2. Twenty years ago, apartment sizes were the same, but homes have increased in size by 6%, from 96m2 in 1996.

For those of you who live in square feet, a 56m2 apartment is just a tad over 600 square feet, likely the size of your den! In the U.S. the average size of a new apartment today is 934 square feet (about 87m2), which is actually 8% smaller than it was 10 years ago! (Source: yardimatrix.com/) Studio apartments became even smaller still, at 18% less. You may be surprised to learn, too, that of the 20 cities with the smallest apartments, New York City is NOT one of them (I would have thought so), and that Tuscon, Arizona holds the record for smallest. Atlanta, Georgia holds the record for largest average apartment. (All this fabulous information is thanks to rentcafe.com/blog/ along with some great charts!)

Homes in the U.S. average now at about 2,500 square feet, 61% bigger than it was 40 years ago and that’s still 2.3 times the size of an average house in the Ile-de-France (1099 square feet). So, the U.S. is growing in home size, while shrinking their apartment sizes, in much greater rates than here in the Ile-de-France region.

Paris apartments are even smaller, with an average of 46m2 compared to 61m2 in the “Grande Couronne.” Studio and two-room apartments make up two-thirds of the Paris landscape. The smallest units outside of Paris are in the Seine-Saint-Denis area and the largest homes are located in the west part of Paris. In the Hauts-de-Seine, the most expensive department outside Paris, the surface of the homes is the largest (115m2) and has risen sharply since 1996 and Yvelines (112m2) is on the rise — a market that is by far the most expensive of the Grande Couronne.

And does size really matter?

Obviously not. When I moved to Paris in 1994, we left our 3,000 square foot home in Los Angeles, to live in a large Paris apartment of about 1,400 square feet. With three bedrooms and two bathrooms, it was plenty spacious enough for our family, but was a shock to our systems having been used to so much more…space we didn’t really use (or need).

When I moved out of that apartment three years later and into 750 square feet (two bedrooms/one bath), it was again a shock to our systems. The small separate kitchen was my first concern: how could I cook in such a small space?

What I discovered is that size DOES matter — smaller is better and more efficient! In the kitchen, you can stand in one spot and reach everything — so much easier than having to cross a large room to go the fridge to get the eggs!

Downsizing meant divesting of things one never really uses or needs — we collect stuff without even thinking about it because we have so much space to fill, but when the space isn’t there, the “things” aren’t necessary or even desirable to own. Hello yard sales!

And I can tell you that size has nothing to do with happiness. I have all of Paris at my feet, so being at home isn’t where I spend most of my time. In Nice, my apartment is a mere 37.5m2, or about 400 square feet and it’s plenty big enough for just one (or even two). Being two blocks from the beach means home isn’t where you’ll find me, either!

So, get out of your large “gilded cages” and into a more warm, loving space somewhere in France. You’ll have all of France at your feet and what more could you need or want?

A bientôt,

Adrian Leeds
The Adrian Leeds Group

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