Pays d’Aix, a wider choice of offerings

Radia Amar - 14 February 2018

All around the centre of Aix-en-Provence, numerous new developments are being delivered. These new homes complement the current array of offerings, mainly targeting retirees and the locally employed.

With six agencies in Gréasque, Trets, La Destrousse, Gardanne, Aubagne, and a seventh which has just opened at 30 boulevard de la République in Aix-en-Provence, La Provençale is a go-ahead family group set up in 1989. Specializing in La Vallée de l’Arc, it now covers the entire area known as Le Pays d’Aix. “We mainly focus on year-round homes for the locally employed and retirees, whose budgets range from 200,000 to 500,000 €. Investors and a few buyers of professional premises complete our clientele,” explains Pierre Blachère, director of this group with about 30 employees. Over the past three years, he has noted steady demand for both houses and apartments. “Unfortunately, buyers are now faced with a limited number of available properties. The gap between supply and demand is widening. We are also developers, and the residences we are currently marketing in Gréasque, Meyreuil and Les Pennes Mirabeau are meeting with real success.” Comprised of over 30 apartments and a few building plots, these new opportunities, including a good number of 1- and 2-bedroomed apartments, are pegged from 3,500 to 3,800 € per sq.m. “In La Vallée de l’Arc where clients are very keen to buy, new accommodation is, however, scarce.”

”We are indeed seeing more and more new developments,” says Pierre-André Scandolera, manager of the Agence Comeri specializing in properties in Aix-en-Provence, on its periphery, and on neighbouring communes covered by the branch in Bouc-Bel-Air. This second agency focuses on Luynes, Callas and Cabriès where family homes priced around 400,000 € are in high demand. “The market is very active all over Le Pays d’Aix, though it is clearly a two-tier affair. On the one hand, the hyper-centre of Aix is very highly sought-after, especially by retirees wanting to move back to town and looking for apartments of about 100 m2 with outdoor areas, in residences with lifts. On the other hand, markets in the surrounding areas are clearly being affected by the massive arrival of new accommodation.” In the hyper-centre of Aix, the loveliest apartments with a full array of attributes are presented at around 6,000 € per sq.m, or up to 8,000 € per sq.m for the most exceptional, while properties of average quality in 1970’s and 1980’s residences in southern neighbourhoods such as Pont de l’Arc and Nativité struggle to find takers in the face of competition from new properties meeting today’s energy standards. Some sell from 2,500 to 3,000 € per sq.m, as illustrated by a bright apartment of 65 m2 with a terrace that the Agence Comeri just sold in Le Pigonnet for around 3,000 € per sq.m. “These properties known to consume lots of energy in residences in outdated styles are now losing 10 to 15 % of their value. Which also has an impact on the rental market,” adds Pierre-André Scandolera.