“How much can I knock off — 5%? 10%?” It is the question buyers ask most often, and it is the wrong one. A percentage applied to the asking price means nothing, because nobody has validated the asking price in the first place. A property already priced correctly will not come down 10%; one overpriced by 25% will not be fixed by 5%.
The right question is: how far is this price from what buyers actually paid for an equivalent property? That gap can be calculated.
1. The margin is a gap, not a percentage
Start from sales signed at the notary around the same address — the DVF records, public and free. Work out the asking price per m², compare it with the median of comparable sales, and you have a gap in euros.
That gap defines your starting position. If it is €60,000, your first offer does not come down “by 10%” — it comes down by what the data supports, and you can explain it line by line.
2. What widens the margin
- Time on the market. A property listed for three months in an area that normally sells in six weeks is sending a clear signal.
- Successive price cuts. Two reductions mean a seller who has already accepted the idea of negotiating.
- An F or G energy rating. Letting restrictions and renovation costs weigh directly on value — and they can be quantified.
- Visible or already-voted works. Façade, roof, lift: these are quotes, not impressions.
- A seller under time pressure. Inheritance, relocation, a purchase already committed elsewhere. It is never in the listing, but it can be asked.
3. What closes it
- a genuinely scarce property — top floor, open view, a house with a garden in town;
- a price already in line with real sales, or below them;
- a recent listing with several viewings under way;
- a tight local market where properties go within days.
In those situations, pushing on price mostly loses you the property. Negotiate something else instead: timing, furniture, who pays for upcoming works.
4. Putting a number on it, in four steps
- Asking price per m². Price divided by the Carrez surface.
- The local reference. The median of comparable sales — same property type, same area, recent period.
- Property-specific corrections. Floor, condition, outdoor space, aspect, parking. Up or down, each one costed.
- The address's own history. What sold in the same building, and for how much. The hardest argument to dismiss.
5. The classic mistake: the round percentage
An offer at “minus 10%” is instantly recognisable for what it is: an attempt, not an analysis. It invites the seller to split the difference at minus 5% without a single figure having been discussed.
An offer of €428,000 supported by four comparable sales and two sales in the same building is a different conversation. The seller may still refuse, but they then have to explain why their property is worth more than those — which is exactly the discussion you want.
Run the numbers on a specific address
OffreJuste does this calculation for you: real sales around the address, how they are spread, the building's own history, then a verdict and a defensible offer range. Analyse an address for free.