Qatar owns 20% of property on Paris’ Champs-Elysées
https://www.lemonde.fr/en/france/article/2025/09/15/qatar-owns-20-of-property-on-paris-champs-elysees_6745416_7.html
by LeMonde_en
Qatar owns 20% of property on Paris’ Champs-Elysées
https://www.lemonde.fr/en/france/article/2025/09/15/qatar-owns-20-of-property-on-paris-champs-elysees_6745416_7.html
by LeMonde_en
19 comments
Who owns the Champs-Elysées, the historic Parisian artery stretching nearly two kilometers between Place de la Concorde and the Arc de Triomphe, renowned worldwide for its harmonious lines and high-end boutiques?
Public land registry files reveal that Qatar, or more precisely, Qatari families or investment funds, own more than 390 meters of the 1.3-kilometer avenue. This accounts for over 20% of what is often referred to as “the world’s most beautiful avenue.” Bilateral agreements signed in the 1990s between France and Qatar spurred this strategy of massive investment. The agreement granted the country and its citizens unusual tax advantages, including exemptions from property capital gains and investment income taxes.
The Gulf emirate, whose embassy faces the Arc de Triomphe, has acquired some of the most iconic buildings on the Avenue des Champs-Elysées. Among them is the Streamline Moderne Art Deco-style building, formerly the Virgin Megastore, at number 52, purchased in 2012 by the sovereign wealth fund Qatar Investment Authority from the Groupama insurance company for over €500 million. Today, the building houses Galeries Lafayette and Monoprix. Another is number 103-111, which was bought by Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund from HSBC for €440 million in 2010. Its future tenant? Louis Vuitton, for a mysterious project – a hotel was once rumored – which will launch after lengthy renovations. Currently, the building is hidden behind a giant metallic trunk bearing the brand’s logo.
“Qatar has invested because buildings on the Champs-Elysées are expensive and offer good returns. These are highly sought-after assets and the ultimate secure investments,” said Christian Dubois, head of retail in France at Cushman & Wakefield, a major commercial real estate firm.
Other long-term investors who have bet on the good fortune of the Champs-Elysées include insurers, sovereign wealth funds, family offices (managers of large family fortunes), and, more recently, luxury groups. The Amundi and Generali groups have a presence there, and AXA owns two buildings.
Read more at this link: [https://www.lemonde.fr/en/france/article/2025/09/15/qatar-owns-20-of-property-on-paris-champs-elysees_6745416_7.html](https://www.lemonde.fr/en/france/article/2025/09/15/qatar-owns-20-of-property-on-paris-champs-elysees_6745416_7.html)
Wait till they hear how Qatar took over european football
Soooo they are so profitable because they are exempt from property capital gains and investment gains tax? And yet the average French will be expected to face austerity measures? Do I have that right?
France isn’t for the French – oh well.
Is there anything else of value in Europe that politicians haven’t sold out?
You mean to tell me that country that is a sponsor of terrorism and accused of bribing EU MPs is buying up land in Europe? That Qatar? We need to stop dealing with these people.
Qatar own a chunk of Paris and own its football team. Safe to say macron is more of a mouthpiece for his Qatari masters.
It’s hard to find 2 things that go as well together as Qatar and negative return investments.
This is the real foreign threat.
Didn’t France sell its vote to ensure Qatar gets a World Cup in exchange for Qatar buying Rafales?
Suddenly Capital Flight isn’t an unmentionable horror that must be avoided at all costs, huh.
Neoliberals love this one trick
The way this mafia state has infiltrated Europe’s (and the West) economics and politics will be studied centuries into the future.
What a disaster fossil fuel money has brought on us.
for French working class there isn’t any difference of the nationality of capitalists because their only nationality is capital. Qatar, China, US, no any difference.
The French and Europeans should be furious at how their countries have been sold out to foreign countries that lead the world in human right abuses. But their governments have managed to channel their focus into all manner of distractions. And the people have become extremely complacent.
This has been going on since the 70s – my French relatives lived just off the street and complained that “the Arabs” had been pricing the French out of the area since at least the early 70s with their oil money…
The oligarchy is global, folks.
They own most of Mayfair, London too!
The fuck you want a boutonnière
Every country made its housing market into an investment instead of keeping it as close to a public good as humanly possible, and now we are all f’ed.
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