Coldwell Banker France said Monday it had teamed up with Bank of China to meet the growing appetite of rich Chinese for upmarket French property.

"France now represents a preferred destination for China's newly wealthy," the head of the French unit of the US real estate agency, Laurent Demeure, told AFP.

With more than 800,000 millionaires, he said wealthy Chinese represent an important future source of demand for the top-end of the French real estate market, as they already are in the United States where they account for over half of purchases by non-residents.

In Paris, Chinese buyers have jumped from 0.3 percent of buyers in 2009 to an expected 2.0 percent this year, with luxury apartments with a view of the Seine and the city's monuments enjoying the most demand from Asian clients.

Under the deal, Coldwell Banker France will tap into the client base of Bank of China, one the country's top-four banks, both in France and in China.

Coldwell Banker, which has 3,600 agencies worldwide including 127 in China, plans to expand it presence in France considerably over the coming years, growing from eight to 100 in five years.