A recent review of the rural property market in France provides a snapshot of the movement in average house prices in each department since 2007.

To compensate for the relatively low number of transactions undertaken each year by SAFER (around 30,000), the average figures span sales over two years. So, for instance, the figure given for 2014 is an average for the two year period 2013/14, and so on.

The table shows that over the seven year period 2007-14 the average price of rural property fell by around 11%, from €179,100 to €159,800.

However, these falls have not occurred everywhere, and departments that have bucked the trend of heading south are Ardennes, Aube, Aude, Doubs, Herault, Lozere, Mayenne, Nord, Puy-de-Dome, Haute-Saone, Savoie, Haut-Savoie, Yvelines, Essonne, and Val-d'Oise.

Lowest average prices are in the Creuse (€70,300), Indre (€74,500) and Haute-Marne (€82,400), while highest prices in mainland France are located in the Bouches-du-Rhone (€397,500), Alpes-Maritimes (€330,700), and Yvelines (€337,200).

According to SAFER, the average prices were obtained after excluding the most expensive 10% and the least expensive 10% of sales.

Even so, in some departments the number of sales each year averages less than 100 (notably in Ardennes, Aude, Herault, Côte-d'Or, Eure-et-Loir and Lozere), so the figures should be used with some caution.