Striking a similar escapist chord as “Emily in Paris” with its glossy imagery of the city of lights, the French luxury real estate show “The Parisian Agency” has been a banger worldwide on Netflix after premiering locally on TF1-owned channel TMC in 2020.
“The Parisian Agency” revolves around the good-looking Kretz brothers, Martin, Valentin, Louis and Raphaël, who work with their parents to run a real estate empire while juggling their personal ambitions, relationships and occasional family tensions. In every episode, the brothers are helping wealthy — and sometimes famous — clients find their new breathtaking homes in Paris or elsewhere in France, and occasionally overseas. They’ve become full-on celebrities in France; Valentin and Raphaël even walked the red carpet at last year’s Cannes Film Festival. Now filming its sixth season, the series — which is surprisingly scored with American rap tunes — ranked as Netflix’s fourth most-watched show worldwide in 2023 and continues to be one of France’s most popular reality formats on any streamer.
The latest in the franchise is a spinoff called “Nouvelles Destinations” (“New Destinations”), which is produced by Story Nation and will start airing on TF1 April 3. It revolves around Valentin and Martin, who challenge each other to scout exotic locations to find prestigious properties in places like the Basque region, Corsica, the Mauritius Islands, Minorca, Venice and the Italian Dolomites, where they also explore opportunities for agency expansion.
Below, Variety caught up with the globe-trotting Valentin Kretz — who is also an aspiring actor — over FaceTime from Cape Town, South Africa, where he shot sequences for Season 6 of “The Parisian Agency.”
Why do you think “The Parisian Agency” has become such a huge hit?
We’re very lucky that our show has been enjoyed by so many people and across different generations because we cover all the ages, from our little brother Raphael who is a young adult (20) to our grandmother Majo (91). I think that all families can more or less recognize themselves in one of us at a certain point in their life. And working as a family is an incredible opportunity. Then of course, there are the incredible properties we find in Paris and in different cities across France. We keep discovering new things, even when we think we’ve seen everything. It never stops.
How much of it is written and rehearsed?
Frankly, it’s the real difference between U.S shows and our show, and I think you can see it. Ours is 99% true to life. That’s why it’s a series that is quite tough and very long to produce. We shoot over the course of a year, whereas in the U.S. they have to do one season in two and a half months. I’ve collaborated a bit with Ryan Serhant on his series about real estate in New York (“Owning Manhattan”) and I shot an episode with him last year, about the agency. I saw how quickly they produce because it’s American style: It’s scripted, they sometimes even have fake buyers, but it doesn’t matter because it’s entertaining and it works.
But you do some reenactments, right?
Of course, there is a bit of reenactment and preparation because when there is a client, we can’t arrive live with the cameras, we don’t know each other and the idea is not to scare them off. And then obviously, we get their authorization before filming. But honestly, we stick to reality 99% of the time.
How long does it take you to shoot each season?
It takes us roughly nine months to a year to shoot eight episodes. In general, we start filming in March and we’ll shoot until December. Once we start filming, we go on with our lives, which is to say that we hope that interesting things happen in the family for the family sequences, and there’s always something going on (sadly, Martin divorced in Season 5). As for the clients, we follow our real estate business. Now that we’ve grown a lot and we have 120 agents with us, there are often sales and a lot of customers, so we have less and less trouble finding exciting visits for the show. But if nothing happens, we’re not going to film for filming’s sake. And then, if there’s an interesting customer who has a good story to tell and agrees to be filmed, we go for it. We sometimes film five days a week and there are weeks when we shoot for one day or not at all. A filmed visit takes about three hours — to do the duties, to spruce up the apartments. We like to take our time so that it’s qualitative.
Your show has been watched more than many French movies on Netflix. What has it been like to have that kind of visibility?
The show is streaming in 18 countries around the world, it’s been dubbed in English and is subtitled in 35 languages, so it’s huge, and it’s true that the visibility we have is crazy. I think we already had 1 million viewers on average every Thursday evening on TMC and on Netflix — they don’t communicate it themselves, but they estimate it’s been watched by 50 to 70 million viewers. It really brings people together in a big way and we’re being recognized everywhere around the world. Just yesterday, we were at a restaurant with Raphaël in South Africa and we were discovered by locals. I was also recognized in Mongolia and in Brazil, where the series is a hit.
Where did the idea for the spinoff, which sees you and your brother Martin competing with each other, come from?
Ever since we were born we’ve been very close, and there’s always been a bit of competition, but a friendly competition where we try to outdo each other. It pushes us both to do better. It’s a bit like the story of our lives. And then, we also love to travel the most out of our brothers. Louis is doing very well in Spain with the development of the agency. As for Raphaël, he’s still studying, so it’s true that it was perfect to focus on the competition between Martin and me. And then in this new show, “Nouvelles Destination,” we also still see the rest of the family. When Louis can join us, for example, he comes along, as was the case in Spain. Raphaël, likewise, went with Martin to Italy.
Martin and Valentin Kretz
How is “Nouvelles Destinations” different from “L’Agence”?
It’s about opening up new markets for us agents, and above all scouting, being a bit ahead of the game and identifying the potential of new locations to see if we’re going to open an agency or not. Today, in the luxury sector, our customers are asking us for much more than just buying a house. They want to know everything about each destination, they’re curious about the activities on offer, what there is to do, to follow their passion. We have some big enthusiasts for wine, cars, golf, sports. It’s great and it’s up to us to find out not only about the houses now, but also what they will be able to do around their homes.
So how will you determine the winner in each episode?
The winner is the one who finds the best houses for sale or for rent and everything around them, i.e. unusual restaurant concepts, hotels that are a bit hidden, always luxurious, unusual activities… The one who brings back the best plans will win the competition. When we return from our trips, the family members vote and then afterwards, we all decide where we’re going to open the agency and where we’re going to invest in sending our customers.
Since you’re competing with your brother, how do you determine the destinations?
We visited eight destinations in four episodes. Each time, they are obviously very different destinations, but we try to find at least a few points of comparison between them. We did Minor against Mauritius, so two islands. And we did the Basque region and Corsica, which are two very strong territories for wines.
Did you feel the need for this spinoff because you’re running out of amazing homes to show in Paris?
Good question. At the end of each season, we ask ourselves: What can we do better than that? For example, at the end of our Season 5, we made a sale for €34 million, which is a record, we’ve blown it out of the water. The record for 2024 was €24 million. The €34-million property is located Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré. It’s a ground-floor apartment, 500 square meters of apartment. In each season, we manage to find different properties, to find new gems. And in fact, we realize that yes, Paris is not the size of the United States and there are no new constructions, but in the end, it is still quite big and there are so many treasures that I think we still have tons to explore.
What’s next for you? Opening a real estate school?
This year, we’re going to start selling franchises for our agency and we’re going to explain all that in Season 6. As far as the school, that’s a big word, but we are in the process of developing an academic training program that is being finalized. Today, it is internal for our agents since we have 120 agents today, but we would like to open it up to people outside the agency. Why not make it a recognized training course in the luxury real estate market?
