The French rural land agency SAFER have recently published their review of the housing market for countryside properties in 2017.

The annual assessment of the property market in the French countryside by SAFER (Société d'Aménagement Foncier et d'Etablissement Rural) provides an opportunity each year to periscope this market.

The study is unique, for other reports from the notaires and estate agents are based primarily on transactions that take place within urban areas, a rather different 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, although a useful snapshot, 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 2017 was €164,600, up from €160,400 in 2016.

The average amount of land in each sale was 5,600m2, but there are no figures on the habitable surface area of the properties sold.

The definition of a 'maison de campagne' used in the study is 'une partie ou l’ensemble d’un ancien corps de ferme ou un bâtiment vendu avec un terrain agricole de moins de 5 ha.'

As can be seen from the graphic below, prices varies substantially between the regions; the least expensive areas, with average prices around €100K, are Central and North East France, the Pyrenees and Brittany, as well as parts of some other regions.

Highest average prices greater than €215K are around the Parisian Basin, Alsace, Haute-Savoie, the Mediterranean coast, the Atlantic coast, and around the cities of Lyon, Toulouse and Bordeaux.

The table below provides the actual figures for each department, showing the average sales prices for 2017 compared to 2016, 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 2016 and 2017 as being particularly significant; it is as likely to be a change in the structure of sales as a price change.

Nevertheless, of the 91 departments for which figures are provided, prices have increased in 63 of them, reflecting the general national increase that has occurred. The ups and downs of the market are spread right across the country, with the exception of Brittany, the only region where prices rose in all departments.

International Buyers

According to SAFER, the percentage of non-resident international buyers in 2017 was 5.1% of total rural house sales, down from 5.3% in 2016.

Although British nationals remain by far the largest group of international buyers, sales to British buyers fell to 41% (47% in 2016) of all international property sales, the result of Brexit and the fall in the Sterling rate. There are early indications that in 2018 there may well have been a reversal of that trend.

The graphic below shows the percentage of rural house sales to international buyers in 2017 by department, from which it can be seen that in some areas of France the proportion of international buyers of rural property was in excess of 15%.

The favourite areas remain the Central West of the country and also parts of Midi-Pyrénées, Burgundy and Languedoc-Roussillon.

The table and images courtesy of Terres d’Europe-Scafr d’après Safer.

View a selection of rural properties for sale in France