According to Knight Frank company research, luxury house prices in Paris rose by 22.2 percent in the year to march 2011. Prime property in Paris recorded the strongest price growth of all the cities monitored within the Knight Frank Prime Global Cities Index. This increase is driven primarily by supply constraints and growing interest from overseas buyers. As mentioned in research, overall, the cities recorded an average annual price growth of 6.6% compared to 12.7% a year earlier. A year ago there was a clear continental divide when it came to the performance of the world's prime property markets. Asian cities occupied the top rankings for price inflation while Europe and the US trailed far behind. A year on and the global picture is less clear cut. According to research, the second place is Hong Kong by 15 percent and the third is Helsinki by 12.2 percent. First five places are concluded Shanghai and Beijing respectively by 11 and by 10 percent increase. In London and in Singapore luxury house prices increased by 8.6 percent. Moscow's prime residential market recorded the weakest performance, with prices declining by 8 percent. However, the rate of decline is slowing, with 0.7 percent recorded in the last quarter.

As reported by Reuters a five-year project for French engineering group Alstom to build an above-ground urban metro line in Baghdad will cost $1.5 billion and be funded by the French government and banks, according to Iraqi officials. The planned line, with a capacity to carry 30,000 passengers an hour, will have 22 km of track and 14 stations linking northern Baghdad districts with the city centre. France's Alstom signed a memorandum of understanding for the deal in January. A follow-up agreement signed in Baghdad on 30 May paved the way for French financing for the project. "The company has obtained agreement from several French banks and the French government to implement this project," Shaker al-Zamili, head of the Baghdad Investment Commission, told Reuters. A final accord on the Baghdad metro project would have to be approved by the Iraqi cabinet, he added. The loan would be repaid by Iraq after the railway started operating, through a mechanism yet to be determined, Zamili added. Iraq's roads, railways, ports and power plants have been badly decayed by years of war, economic sanctions and underinvestment. Alstom is a large French multinational conglomerate which holds interests in the power generation and transport markets. Alstom is active in the field of hydroelectric power generation, in conventional islands for nuclear power plants, and in environmental control systems. Alstom is also present in the urban transport market, and is behind regional train models, signaling infrastructure equipment, and a number of associated services.

Paris unveiled the latest giant to grace its famous skyline, with the formal inauguration of France's tallest skyscraper, known as the "First Tower". At 21,000 tonnes, the First is more than twice as heavy as the French capital's tallest and most famous landmark, the Eiffel Tower, which nevertheless beats it for sheer height at 324 meters. The spire was born when developers stripped down and rebuilt the mighty Axa block in La Defense business quarter on the western edge of the city, adding 69 metres to send it soaring to 231 metres. Now, the tower tops the city's previous famously unloved tallest office block, the slab-like Tour de Montparnasse, which looms over the Left Bank at 210 metres tall. But, despite the triumph of its architecture, First has so far not proved a hit with tenants: Only half of its office space, 80,000 square metres spread over 52 floors, has so far been allocated. Building on the 300 million euro ($ 440 million) tower began in 2008. The first tenant, accountancy giant Ernst and Young, will move in during the second half of the year. But the highest tower title The First can lose in 2016. Government has issued a permit for construction of the Phare Tower (Lighthouse Tower) with 300 meters high also in region La Defense, which is scheduled to open in 2016.