Houses in Dax

Situated in Gascony, midway between Bayonne and Mont-de-Marsan and 30 km from the beaches of Les Landes, the sub-prefecture of “département 40” has been renowned for the quality of its hot spring water since the Age of Antiquity. Here, individual housing is the star product...

Once a favourite haunt of Madame de Maintenon, Henri Bergson, Georges Clemenceau, Maurice Utrillo, Sacha Guitry, Pierre Fresnay, Pierre Benoît and Sarah Bernhardt, the town, built on the banks of the Adour, is now home to 20,900 inhabitants. The Art Deco buildings, including the Hôtel Splendid and the Atrium, stand in place and stead of the medieval castle. Woods invade the banks of the river, green hills mark the south, pinewoods the west, and the forest the north. Besides the thermal spa, bullfighting and rugby are the main symbols of the lovely town of Dax. It hosts many administrative entities : the sub-prefecture, law courts, the police, the tax office, customs, gendarmerie, social security, ANPE, DDE, the military base, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, as well as junior, intermediate and high schools. The service sector is now well-developed thanks to the tourist industry, though industrial firms still form part of the local scene.

“Individual houses are more difficult to work with than apartments, first of all for structural reasons : the area popular amongst potential buyers, ie. the town centre and streets in the immediate proximity, offers very few houses. And the rare examples available usually belong to local families who are more inclined to rent them out rather than sell,” explains Isabelle Moninhas of Foncia Courtès Accord. Demand is also very high for the residential St. Vincent neighbourhood, where there are two reputable clinics. Buyers are usually aged between 25 and 55. As they approach retirement, they show more interest in apartments in the historic heart of town. For lack of means, the youngest with budgets of between 150,000 and 200,000 €, fall back on villages on the outskirts, Candresse, Narrosse or Thétieu, where they opt for a recent single-storey “pavillon” of 80-100 m2 with a garden, or an old building with character in need of a lick of paint or even full renovation. Already well-established, other clients mostly pay from 250,000 to 300,000 € for a house, provided they can find an address in Dax itself. Currently, clients are really set on buying : the problem lies in aligning the two parties concerned.

“In the centre, there is a severe shortage of houses,” says Philippe Bamonde of Carrez Immobilier. “Some are not even occupied, maintained as assets by the locals. A factor that doesn’t exist in the case of apartments. Of recent construction, the latter are already occupied, on the market or available for rent.” Among his recent sales, this estate-agent describes a house of 130 m2 in grounds of 1,500 m2 benefitting from a small pool on the Route de Percis, acquired for 250,000 € by a young retiree, and a town house of 210 m2 in need of restoration, opening out to a patio, acquired for 325,000 € by a company director. Above these price levels, potential buyers are scarce. Many people working in Dax, often senior managers or self-employed professionals, prefer the very attractive Landes coast, even though it means daily commuting.

Even if euphoria is no longer on the cards, Régine Grillon of Foch Immobilier notes the return of a few buyers with substantial budgets of about 400,000 €. Extremely demanding, they are very hard to satisfy, especially as sellers are pretty greedy. Régine Grillon is currrently proposing, for example, a house of 200 m2 to renovate with a garage of 50 m2 in grounds of 1,200 m2 in the Saint-Vincent neighbourhood, at 330,000 €. A few years ago, it would have found a taker without delay. Today, sales take much longer to go through. A maisonnette of 90 m2 which could be extended by a further 80 m2 in a garden of 700 m2, in a very convenient location, offered at 210,000 €, took ten months to leave the agency’s files. Nevertheless, individual houses, partly under-pinned by seniors wishing to leave the countryside to get closer to urban settings and amenities, out-strip apartments and account for a higher volume of business. With the crisis, prices have undergone an adjustment rather than a significant decline. The market is now stable but fragile, and the potential client, always looking for bargains, seems volatile and hesitant, even at the risk of missing out on a property in line with his requirements.

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