The average price of a building plot in France in 2010 was €59m², an increase of 4.3% over 2009.

The headline figure disguises considerable regional and differences, with prices ranging from €18m² in the Limousin to an average of €167m² in the Île-de-France.

Prices also reflected their proximity to urban centres and their size, with the price in the largest cities averaging €116m², although in Paris itself prices rose to an average of €238m².

By contrast, in rural areas prices averaged €41m².

The figures come from the annual review of building land prices carried out by the statistical service of the French government.

With prices on the increase, buyers compensated on the overall cost by purchasing smaller plots, which fell by 3.8%, from 1,141m² in 2009 to 1,098m² in 2010.

These prices and plot sizes are unlikely to be representative of the prices paid by most international buyers, the majority of whom purchase larger building plots in favoured locations. However, they do serve as a benchmark to use when purchasing land for building purposes.

The differences in the prices of building plots meant that, while in Paris and Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur the cost of building land was nearly half of the total cost of constructing a house, in most other areas it was around one third of the total cost.

The following graphic shows the average percentage of land cost to total construction cost for each region of France. As can be seen, the highest ratio of land to total cost was in Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, at 47%.