The average sale price of a rural French property rose by 1.8% last year to €171,000, but over the past three years in most departments prices have either remained stable or have fallen.

The annual review of the housing market for country properties in 2019 has recently been published by the French rural land agency SAFER.

Although the notaires regularly report on the state of the housing market in France, as most transactions from which the figures are derived are based on sales in urban areas their reports are only of limited value to international buyers seeking information on the state of the market for rural properties.

We published an article on the notaires annual review in House Prices in France 2019.

The gap left by the notaires is partially filled by the annual report from SAFER, which focuses entirely on this market.

Their data is obtained from the notaires, who are legally obliged to notify them of prospective rural land and property sales, on which they then have a right of pre-emption.

However, caution is needed in the interpretation of the figures due to the low number of transactions in most departments and the heterogeneous nature of the market. In some cases, the figures are based on no more than a few hundred transactions that have occurred.

On a national basis SAFER state that the average sale price of a 'maison de campagne' in 2019 was €171,000 an increase of 1.8% over 2018. This increase was less than the general increase of 2.6% for all older properties reported by the notaires. The average amount of land in each sale was 5,500m2.

The definition of a 'maison de campagne' used in the study is 'un bâtiment résidentiel vendu avec un terrain agricole ou naturel libre de moins de 5 hectares, acquis par des non-agriculteurs.'

As can be seen from the graphic below, prices vary substantially between the regions; the least expensive areas, with average prices less than €110K, are Central and North East France, the Pyrenees and central Brittany.

Highest average prices greater than €233K are around the Paris Basin, Alsace, Haute-Savoie, the Mediterranean coast, the Atlantic coast, and around the cities of Lyon, Toulouse, Reims, Nantes, and Bordeaux.

The table below shows the average sale price for 2019 by department, compared to 2018 and 2017, and the minimum and maximum sales prices. The analysis excludes the lowest priced 10% and highest priced 10% of sales.

Due to the low number of transactions it would be imprudent to regard the movement in average prices between 2018 and 2019 as being particularly significant. That is why we have also included the figures for 2017.

As can be seen, the picture is a mixed one, with a general modest increase in prices over the three years in most departments, some remaining stable, but in 18 departments prices have fallen. These falls are spread across the country, in the departments of Haute-Saône, Yonne, Cher, Meuse, Bas-Rhin, Pas-de-Calais, Corrèze, Creuse, Dordogne, Landes, Aveyron, Gard, Hautes-Pyrénées, Hérault, Lozère, Mayenne, Bouches-du-Rhône and Hautes-Alpes.

International Buyers

The authors state that 4.4% of the sales were to non-residents, down 0,7% compared to 2018, with purchases by non-resident British buyers down by 10%.

As can be seen from the graphic below, sales to non-residents were over 15% of total sales in some areas, notably in the Central West of the country.

Source:Terres d’Europe-Scafr d’après Safer.

View a selection of rural properties for sale in France