The price of building land in France averaged €51/m2 in 2007, an increase of 16% over 2006.*

The figures come from an annual study of building land prices carried out each year by the statistical service of the French Government. The figures for 2008 will be available at the end of this year.

Cheapest building plots in France were to be found in the Limousin, where they sold for a modest €14/m2, almost half the price of anywhere else in France. The most expensive region in which to buy a building plot was in the Ile de France, with an average price of €191/m2.

The price of building land rose in all regions of France, but most notably in Upper Normandy and Nord-Pas-de-Calais, each recording a rise of 29%. Other regions with similarly spectacular rises were Franche-Comte, where they went up 22%, Brittany 22% and Midi-Pyrenees 20%. Lowest increases were recorded in Corsica, where prices went up by 12%.

The average plot size was 1284m2, purchased for an average price of €65,545. Once again, however, there were significant regional variations, with the largest plots averaging 2066m2 being purchased in the Limousin, for an average price of €28,339. In the Ile de France they averaged 810m2, for an average price of €154,696.

Within the regions, prices were cheapest in rural areas, with plots averaging €26m2, although such plots also recorded the highest price increases in the year of 24%. This reflects the growing difficulty of obtaining planning permission in the French countryside, as planners seek to focus development around existing settlements.

Prices were highest in the more urban areas. In those urban areas with a population greater than 200,000 the average price was €122/m2. Paris had the highest prices for a plot, at €328/m2.

The price you paid for a building plot also depended to some extent on just who you were. Whilst the professional classes paid an average of €72/m2 for a plot, farmers paid a modest €19/m2!

As a result of prudent buying by farmers, their land costs were only 21% of total land and construction costs. The average percentage cost of the land in other cases was 33% of total costs.

In our next Newsletter we shall carry a review of construction costs in 2007 for new build properties in France.

*These figures contrast with those published in our Newsletter in March 2008 as the government have changed the basis on which the price movements are calculated, using only land sold in 2007 for the figures in that year, whilst previously they used figures from previous years, for homes constructed in the review year.