Mulhouse Property Guide & Information

Mulhouse is the most important town of the Haut-Rhin department and the second town of Alsace with its 112,000 inhabitants and with its urban area of 271,000 people. It lies in the south of the region and is part of the Haute-Alsace. It benefits from a privileged position in the heart of the “three borders region”. Indeed, it lies at only 30km Of Switzerland and 14km of Germany. The Vosges massif is distant from 20km. The town is crossed by two watercourses, the Doller and the Ill, which are tributaries of the Rhin River flowing 15km away from the town.

Overview

Founded 2,000 years ago, Mulhouse has always been economically strong. During the Middle Ages, it was a rich bourgeois burg and became an industrial town. It was called “the French Manchester” for a long time, and this glorious industrial past forever marked Mulhouse and its identity.

Efforts are constantly made for Mulhouse to improve the quality of life of its inhabitants. The cultural life is rich and numerous sportive facilities are available for the inhabitants. The town offers many pleasant places to relax or roam.

Many beautiful mansion houses and an important patrimony are the signs of its former prosperity of the industrial revolution and several important museums nowadays assets this. Today, Mulhouse still is an important economical centre. The new technologies of information and communication are a major sector of its economy, as is also the automobile sector with the presence of the production centre of Peugeot. The town is directly linked to the main European economical areas. It lies on the strategic axe of Frankfurt-Milan.

Mulhouse Immobilier & Property Market Trends

At the beginning of 2009, the price to buy a property in Mulhouse was around €1,750/sq m. In comparison to the national average which is around €3,200/sq m, it stays quite affordable. Furthermore, Mulhouse is slightly cheaper than Colmar, another important town of the department.

With the new tramway, certain quarters became more popular. A by-path has been built to by-pass the centre, which also participated to the popularity of some quarters like the ones of the Fonderie or the Bassin. Many new dwellings were built this decade. Thus, the price of the oldest properties did not increase a lot. The cheapest properties can be found in the quarters of Coteaux or Franklin. The prices become higher next to the historical centre, in the quarters of Domach or Rixheim.

To get updated info about the property prices in Haut-Rhin, please browse our French Property Market Reports published in the News Section every month.

3 Reasons to Buy a Property in Mulhouse

• Culture: Mulhouse has many large museums as the biggest automobile museum of the world. The Cité de l’automobile houses the famous Schlumpf collection. The EDF Electropolis museum is one of the most important electricity museum of Europe and the Cité du Train is the principal railway museum of France. Furthermore, the town was certified town of art and history in 2008.

• Architectural style: the ancient town hall can be seen on the main square of the town. It shows frescos representing the virtues of the reformed religion and some arms of Swiss cantons. Some marvellous houses and villas dating from the 15th century were preserved and still punctuate the town.

• Transport: Mulhouse is well located and has a good transport networks. The town shares an airport with the Swiss city of Bâle. It is the only bi national airport of the world. Thanks to the low-cost company EasyJet operating there, the number of passengers increased. Mulhouse is also at the centre of a rail system where the future TGV will be linked : the Rail 2000 between Italy (Milan) and Switzerland (Bâle), the German ICE north-south and the TGV Rhin-Rhône which will set Mulhouse at around 2h20 of Paris and 3h30 of Marseille.

Property Styles and Architecture in Mulhouse

Mulhouse is a town which denotes with the rest of Alsace. This is due to its quick urban growth of the 19th century.

• Apartments: Mulhouse accounts for a proportion of 83% of apartments and many were built recently. Of course, their prices are more expensive than the oldest ones. Half of the apartments comprise one or two bedrooms, but studios and larger apartments are available.
• Rendering Houses: houses only represent a small proportion of all the properties in Mulhouse. The most common ones are rendering houses comprising a hipped-roof. Sometimes, these houses comprise shutters and are often made of several storeys.

Click here for more info about the Architecture in Alsace.