Every now and then, while having one of our regular walks through one of the little French villages, we come across stunning houses set in the countryside. We think we could never afford one of those renovated old stone houses, with a long driveway lined with perfectly shaped cypress trees and, of course, a big pool. The bright walls seem to be freshly pointed, the shutters have the nicest colour, the climbing roses next to the door are free of aphids, and the gravel shows not a single piece of weed.
Did you know that there is a website where you can see the selling price of all properties in France sold in the last five years?
Before you click on the link, be sure you can handle the truth: if your dream property was sold in the last five years, you will find out exactly how much it cost. Or you can just join the fun: look up houses you saw on your walks, and find out how much the owner paid. This works even for flats in Paris and seaside properties. I assure you, one can spend quite some time clicking through a French street you know, checking the prices.
When you choose a property in a rural area, you may have to zoom out to see all the marked plots that come with the house. Very often, the plots are not all connected.
The prices of the blue plots are publicly accessible. As soon as you click on one blue plot it turns red together with all the plots that were sold in a single transaction. In this example the price for all of them – including the house – was 135.000 €.
The data on the website is only updated twice a year, so it can take a while before a selling price appears. And if you are wondering why some of the prices seem unusual – for example 249.100€ – this is because, if you keep things like furniture from the previous owner for free, the estimated value of these items is deducted from the actual sale price before calculating the tax. In this case they probably bought the house for 250.000€.
Let´s get started and click through your favorite area!