The Paris property market is well known for being one of the priciest in the world, with the average price per square metre now over €10,000.
The combination of limited space, limited housing and very high demand has pushed prices in the French capital sky high, with prices rising by 62.5 percent over the past 10 years.
But even within this context, the advert for a 30 square metre studio apartment for €945,000 – or €30,000 per square metre – sparked derision and anger.
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The apartment, which sits in a prime location in the 7th arrondissement on the Champs de Mars, at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, was first advertised on popular selling site Leboncoin.
Pictures showed a one-room apartment with a bookcase used to separate the bed from the living space, up for sale for €945,000.
However the advert has now been removed after the seller says he was deluged with insults and hate mail.
Philippe Lederman, the owner of the Saint Ferdinand Immobilier real estate agency which had advertised the apartment, told French newspaper Le Parisien that he had been shocked by the reaction.
He said: “I've been getting insults, hate mail, people saying to me: 'Aren't you ashamed to sell at that price?”
He said that the price had been set by the owner but added: “In this area, which is very touristy, real estate agencies mainly have foreign clients looking for a pied-à-terre with an unobstructed view of the capital's symbol, the Eiffel Tower.”
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