The market for houses in Aix-en-Provence

Radia Amar - 04 December 2015

Ideally located 26 km from Marseille and 2 hrs 40 from Paris on the TGV, the lovely capital of Provence is widely known for its listed historic monuments and charming old streets lined with properties built in the 17th and 18th centuries. A market offering apartments and private mansions, Aix-en-Provence can also propose lovely detached houses with gardens, within its city walls…

“In Aix intra-muros, houses and villas benefiting from gardens are mostly to be found to the north, in the neighbourhood of La Violette, to the south, in the Saint-Jérôme and Parc Jourdan areas, and to the east, not far from Cours Mirabeau around the Parc de La Torse,” explains Guillaume Rey of the Actuel Immobilier agency, which has just orchestrated the sale of an impeccable “bastide” of 200 m2 in La Torse, with grounds of 1,200 m2 and a pool, acquired by a French client for 1,250,000 €. If you are ready to envisage a few hundred metres from the town centre, La Torse, lying between the Route de Cézanne and Route de Nice, is a premium address in a countrified environment with its stream, leafy park, shops, amenities, and schools enjoying good reputations. “The market for houses is as lively as ever, with desirable locations posting steady prices, likely to be revised upwards when the stock of availabilities begins to shrink,” adds our specialist. It seems clear that all indicators are green for go, for all those hoping to finalize their plans to buy before any announcement of a scarcity of properties, which will inevitably have an impact on the prices of the most appealing properties.

Another highly-prized area, Les Pinchinats is a rural neighbourhood just north-east of the town. Here, beautiful bourgeois residences such as the Château de la Mignarde boast rich and colourful pasts. “In fact, Les Pinchinats is a very popular area, sought-after for its quietness and closeness to the town centre. Especially as one of the main criteria for many of our buyers is being a reasonable distance from the centre of Aix while also enjoying a quiet, high-quality environment,” says Sabine Ruiz of the Barnes Provence agency, whose clients looking for houses with 3 or 4 bedrooms and small gardens arrive with budgets ranging from 1.1 to 1.5 million euros. “Most of them are new arrivals in the region, often Parisians or ex-pats planning their return to France. The majority are looking for year-round homes and they mostly pay cash, without having to resort to obtaining a mortgage.” As an example of sales representing the current market, she mentions a recent house on the hills above the town. Offering living space of 250 m2 in grounds of 2,500 m2, it just found a new owner for 1,295,000 €.