Property in France: Battle of the resorts

The coast has always been a favourite with the French themselves, and because of this, prices tend to be higher the closer you are to the beach. In some areas, a panoramic sea view can almost double the price. However, there are lots of properties available at more reasonable prices if you look a few roads back from the coast, with a more distant sea view or no sea view at all.

Because of the demand for properties in the resorts, as well as the fact that they have a good tourist trade supported by a wide range of hotels, they tend to offer all types of leisure and sport activities, as well as having a good selection of shops, restaurants, bars and cafés.

There are obviously countless resorts along the north, west and south coasts of France, so to give you a better feel for prices and ambience, I will compare two resorts from each coast.

Le Touquet versus Dinard Along the north coast, the first resort to spring to my mind is Le Touquet, offering ease of access by ferry, tunnel and air. Located in the Pas de Calais region, its close proximity to the UK makes it a popular destination for weekends as well as longer holidays. It’s also ideal for permanent homes as friends and family can pop over to visit you for a day if they wish.

Le Touquet Paris Plage, as it is known, is popular with Parisians for second homes and because of this, the resort offers good shopping and restaurants as well as regular events and festivals almost every weekend. Activities on offer include two golf courses, plus four more within a half an hour of the town, a casino, fishing in the Canche valley, sea-fishing, horseriding, tennis, sand-surfing and sailing, plus walks in the forest and surrounding countryside. The beaches are wide and sandy and you can walk for miles from town to town along the beach.

A seafront studio apartment in Le Touquet starts from around €150,000 while a three/four-bedroom house in the renowned forest area of Le Touquet will range from €600,000 to over €1m. Properties in the surrounding villages and towns will be a little cheaper.

Further along the northern coast, in the popular region of Brittany, is the lively coastal town of Dinard.With access to the beaches, as well being close to the delightful Dinan, it is another popular and touristy town with cobbled streets, lovely restaurants and shops, and access to the Rance river. St Malo with its port and beaches and St Cast-le-Guildo are also close by, giving visitors to the area a wide range of villages and towns to visit.

Dinard has direct flights from the UK and offers various leisure activities including horse-riding, mini-golf and yachting, as well as having a casino. A development just 500m from a sandy beach, with tennis nearby, offers 36 one/twobedroom apartments with sea views from €140,000. At around €600,000, you will find substantial detached stone properties within a few steps of the beach.

Ile de Ré versus Biarritz Moving down to the west coast, we come to Ile de Ré, an island off the Atlantic coast of France near La Rochelle. Part of the Charente-Maritime department, the island is 30km long and 5km wide, connected to the mainland by a 2.9km bridge, completed in 1988. The area is quite warm throughout the year, due to the influence of the Gulf Stream waters, and the number of sunny days per year is remarkably high, on a par with the French Riviera on the Mediterranean coast.

With its warm, protected waters, the Pertuis d’Antioche straits (between Île de Ré and Île d'Oléron) have become one of the most active tourist and pleasure-boat centres in Europe, with the La Rochelle marina complex at its centre. Until recently, it was little known outside France, but it is becoming popular with other European countries, including the UK. It offers all the usual leisure activities found in other coastal resorts and has its own special cachet being an island. It is accessible by air to La Rochelle, by TGV and by road.

Despite being is one of the more expensive and exclusive areas of France, you can still find a studio apartment from around €140,000. At the other end of the scale, at €3.9m, is a recently built house with guest/ caretaker’s cottage and heated swimming pool, set in almost an acre of beautiful grounds with olive and fruit trees plus an automatic watering system. Situated close to the beach and a golf course, this spacious family home enjoys amazing views. Somewhere in the middle, a single-storey house built in 1996, with studio apartment and garden, only five minutes from the beach is for sale at €495,000.

Further down the Atlantic coast, in the Pyrénées- Atlantiques department, we come to the ever-popular, chic resort of Biarritz with its superb beaches famous for surfing. It has a casino, wonderful hotels, a splendid selection of restaurants, cafes, bars and upmarket shops, and is close to golf courses.

The centre of Biarritz has been revamped to make way for pedestrians, favouring pleasant walkways and animated squares, while the seafront now spreads out into the town centre. The areas of Les Halles and Jules Ferry have been entirely rethought, and Place Clémenceau and Place Bellevue are now now pedestrianised.

There are direct flights from the UK to Biarritz, as well as to nearby Bordeaux and Toulouse, plus TGV and good roads.

A charming, one-bedroom apartment with terrace in Biarritz will cost from €195,000 while a south-facing townhouse with 40m2 terrace, situated in the heart of Biarritz just 100m from the beach, is on the market at around €840,000. A budget of €1,478,000 will buy a 17th-century stone character house set in over a quarter of an acre of gardens with pool, in the centre of Biarritz, close to the beach, amenities and golf courses.

Collioure/Argelès versus Cannes/Nice Last but not least comes the Mediterranean coast, possibly the most popular with UK purchasers. Languedoc- Roussillon has many resorts by sandy beaches, offering water sports, boating and sailing as well as the usual selection of leisure activities and restaurants. Spain is just a few kilometres away and ski stations are within striking distance.

Argelès has both a marina and sandy beaches and is next door to the well-known, beautiful resort of Collioure, a few kilometres north of the Spanish border in the Pyrénées- Orientales department. Collioure is also the name of a fine, full-bodied red wine produced in one of the smallest AOC vineyards in France. The ancient terraced vines in the hills behind the town also provide tiny sunbaked grapes for the famous Banyuls apereritif and desert wine. In August a three-day festival attracts thousands of visitors, with entertainment including fireworks.

Prices in Argelès port start at around €150,000 for a onebedroom apartment with views over the marina, while in Argelès sur Mer, close to the sea, an attractive house with outbuildings set in 3.5 acres bordered by a stream, on the edge of the village, is for sale at €945,000. Close to Collioure, a renovated property set in 2.25 acres of wooded grounds, close to sea and mountains is €1.25m. In Collioure itself, a fivebedroom penthouse apartment with terrace and swimming pool, enjoying stunning sea and mountain views is €1.4m.

Heading east along the Mediterannean coast, the area between Nice and Cannes is probably the most famous of France’s seaside areas. It attracts visitors and property-buyers from all over the world, so it offers a sophisticated and cosmopolitan lifestyle with easy access to Italy. There must be over 20 flights from the UK alone per day into Nice, making it accessible from all parts of Britain.

The attractions are neverending: sunshine for most of the year, sandy beaches, many with superb restaurants allowing lunch on the beach even in December, cuisine for every budget, bars, cafes... It’s a shopper’s paradise too, with everything from Dior to Zara, plus there’s easy access to the Italian markets in San Remo and Ventimiglia. There’s a wide selection of golf courses and tennis clubs, while water sports on offer include sailing, boating, waterskiing and swimming. There are even ski stations within an hour’s drive.

Events and festivals are held throughout the year, with fireworks in Cannes at least once a week in summer, as well as in many other Riviera resorts (Menton lemon festival, Nice flower carnival, jazz, classical and pop music festivals). Most resorts offer casinos, some offer English-language films. There is no shortage of culture, with many museums and art galleries in the area as well as the fabulous Rothschild gardens. In Monte Carlo famous acts appear throughout the summer. Property prices vary tremendously. It is possible to find a small apartment in central Nice from around €100,000, but a villa overlooking the sea, perhaps on Cap d’Antibes, with caretaker’s lodge, pool and tennis court, set in an acre of grounds, enjoying panoramic sea views will set you back a cool €18m.

In general, prices for a onebed apartment with a partial sea view or close to the sea are around €150,000 to €350,000, while seafront apartments may start at €850,000 for one bedroom, rising to €3m for a two/three-bedroom apartment in Cannes. A villa with three bedrooms, without a sea view but within minutes of the sea, would start at around €750,000. A recently built villa in Nice, set back a little but with a superb sea view, will cost €850,000. Prices depend on which area of which resort the properties are located in, plus whether they have a sea view and the quality of the building, so it is difficult to list exact prices.

Each of these seaside resorts will attract different people, looking for different things from their home in France. It is, of course, essential that you explore the areas to see what appeals to you and what you can afford – there is no substitute for seeing an area and properties ‘in the flesh’. The fact that the French coast has so much to offer in terms of activities obviously attracts a lot of people, which in turn makes these areas busier and buzzier than neighbouring regions inland. There are many more coastal resorts to choose from – or perhaps the peace and tranquility of the open countryside is more to your liking. In France, you have a vast choice of properties, both inland and on the coast. The only problem is deciding which you like most!

Penny Zoldan is managing director at Latitudes French Property Agents Tel: 020 8951 5155 www.latitudes.co.uk

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