French property watch - April 2019

LARGEST CITY: Marseille

DEPARTMENTS: Bouches-du-Rhône, Var, Vaucluse

OTHER MAIN CITIES: Avignon, Toulon, Aix-en-Provence, Brignoles, Draguignan, Arles

It is not quite wall-to-wall sunshine in the three departments that make up the western half of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur (Paca) region but it’s not far off, with more than 300 days of sun a year.

This part of south east France is popular with English-speakers seeking a slice of French life and that started long before Peter Mayle wrote his bestselling A Year In Provence.

It is easy to get to, with regular high-speed rail services and the airport at Marseille, which has flights to Bristol, Manchester, London, Glasgow and Dublin. Toulon Hyères has a flight to Southampton and Avignon airport has routes to London, Southampton, Leeds and Edinburgh.

Coupled with the lure of the Côte d’Azur’s western flank, which stretches east from the port of Toulon, this means bargains are more difficult to find than in other rural regions.

According to the Notaires de France, properties routinely fetch more than €2,000 per m² – lower than better-known areas of the nearby Riviera coastline but still considerably above average.

The area has more than its fair share of seven and even eight-figure properties and prices have remained relatively stable although there was a slight dip year-on-year in 2018, official notaire figures show.

A typical older property in the Toulon area will fetch around €367,500, with prices rising steadily in the first three months of 2019. Similar properties in the 92 communes of the Métropole d’Aix-Marseille-Provence average €320,000.