La Roche sur Yon Property Insight

Overview

La Roche sur Yon is a town of 50,000 inhabitants, administrative capital of the Vendée department and Pays de la Loire French region. The town is built on granite rocks and overlooks the Yon valley. Located in the very middle of a rural department, La Roche sur Yon is quite dynamic demographically and is at a railway crossroads between Nantes and Bordeaux, Paris and Les Sables d’Olonne.

Offering plenty of gorgeous monuments, many quarters of the French commune have a prestigious aspect. Located next to the Atlantic, the town is also praised for its many pleasant gardens. Offering sport facilities and a high quality of life, la Roche sur Yon is definitely an up and coming place in Vendée. La Roche is also a town for faimilies, offering many activities and a sound environment for children to grow up. Within a stone’s throw from the ocean and its lovely coastline, it is also 40 minutes from the bustling city of Nantes, which also offers numerous jobs. There are many historic and cultural sites as well such as museums, and the local gastronomy is great.

When it comes to real estate, La Roche sur Yon offers a variety of town houses, more or less typical accommodation and is described as a pleasant place to live. Inhabitants are described as generous people. The town has implemented several actions in recent years to limit the increase of prices and offer bargain properties.

La Roche Sur Yon Immobilier & Property Market Trends

A property in France in 2009 costs €3,197 /square metre on average. A La Roche sur Yon property costs €2,114.11 /square metre. The French commune is often praised for its lower prices despite the high quality of life it offers.

Below are some examples of property prices:

House Prices in La Roche sur Yon - 2009

House prices in La Roche sur Yon’s area are very moderate. However, if you wish to buy in La roche sur Yon’s town centre itself, prices increase steeply and catch up the departmental ones.

Apartment Prices - 2009

Many apartments in the French commune are bargains, especially given the fact that La Roche is close to the sea. Thus rental opportunities are quite numerous and return on investment is easy and swift. All this is upheld by the good transport links of the area.

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

5 Reasons to Buy a Property in La Roche Sur Yon

• Transport links: air travel: budget airlines operate to La Rochelle and Nantes from UK airports, all 40 minutes drive from La Roche sur Yon. Bus transfers are available. Train: the town is connected to Nantes and thence to Paris with high-speed trains. By car, motorways connect Nantes and Niort (both 1hr away) to Paris and Calais.

• Heaven for sport lovers: the French commune and its area provide a plenty of activities. The most loved are horse riding – as in the rest of the region, golfing, cycling and walking. The Atlantic coastline, being some miles away, lets you enjoy a number of watersports too. The neighbouring rivers are also ideal to spend some time on a boat and relax. This is renownwed amongst tourists who like to visit the Marais Poitevin to relax for instance.

• Food and wine delights: the kamok is a liqueur made from coffee, which was created in 1860 by a local. The liqueur is obtained from high quality arabica coffee aged in oak barrels. The Préfou is a bagette bread covered with oil and garlic. The Troussepinette is a wine made from black thorns. All these delights make the fame of the area.

• Tranquillity and scenery: the French commune combines the assets of a town with all the delights of the countryside. As the rest of Vendée, it is much appreciated for its authentic character and preserved traditions. A popular activity in La Roche is horse riding and horse-drawn carriage promenades and strolls.

• Climate and weather: this area of Vendée benefits from the climate of the southern part of the department: dry and warm, however it is cooled down slightly by the fresh air from the Atlantic. A very pleasant climate in any season, which draws many visitors to the department (second most touristy department of France in number of visitors).

Property Styles and Architecture in La Roche Sur Yon

• Town houses: La Roche sur Yon is honeycombed with beautiful town houses. Their walls are painted and they are semi detached. The angles of the walls are often decorated with white stones recalling tuf. The rest of the walls can be rendered. The layout of these properties is often simple and symmetrical. The price of such properties is generally quite moderate as well.
• Manor houses: these prestigious houses are numerous in an area which has always been a place of many battles for power. Castles and fortified properties were thus numerous, as well as bourgeois properties. Manor houses can derive from one of the latter property type or the other. Manoirs have a symmetrical layout and a pretigious aspect. They boast large chimneys and steeply pitched roofs. Vast landscape gardens come with the property. Obviously these properties are more expensive but can be found at financially interesting prices around La Roche sur Yon.

Click here for more info about the Architecture in Pays de la Loire.