The seafront in the capital of the Côte d’Azur has long been a choice address for owners of holiday homes, but also an important challenge for local authorities in terms of urban planning. The traffic and the seafront's amenities in general are currently being reviewed.

We owe the road along the seafront to the British who spent their winters on the Côte d’Azur : they built a path 2 metres wide, the forerunner of today’s “Promenade des Anglais”. In 1856, it was extended as far as Magnan, and widened shortly afterwards. In 1878, it was extended to Sainte-Hélène, to Carras in 1882, and as far as the Var river in 1903. At the same time, casinos, apartment blocks and luxury hotels were replacing villas. Two waves of construction, orchestrated first in 1931, then in 1953, gave the site its final appearance. Road traffic has been a recurring problem of the Promenade, which offers three to six lanes depending on the section. Yet the portion which runs along no less than 8 km of beaches is known as a favorite place for walks and paradise for roller-skaters. The urban areas are constantly enhanced. And if the famous blue chairs, now fixed, were once the symbol of “farniente” on the Côte d’Azur, they have now been joined by pergolas and cycling lanes.

Anne-Marie Bonin of the Agata Chapman agency, also responsible for the Nice section of the SIA of the Alpes-Maritimes, distinguishes three sectors. Facing south and close to the town centre, the Méridien-Gambetta stretch contains, in addition to renowned hotels including the Negresco and Palais de la Mediterranée, 12 blocks of apartments priced from 8,000 to 10,000 €/m2 in the case of properties in excellent condition. Gambetta-Magnan is home to 24 residences ranging from 5,000 to 7,500 €/m2. Finally, the stretch ending in Les Bosquets, the last one before the airport, enjoys a lovely view, but suffers from noise from both the “Prom” and the Mathis expressway. Generally “through” or “wall-to-wall”, these apartments costing from 4,000 to 6,000 €/m2 overlook both the Mediterranean and Avenue de la Californie, a slightly less attractive location. The vast majority of buyers are looking for holiday homes. During the crisis, the middle-to-well-off category, ready to pay 400,000 € for this type of property, disappeared, while the wealthy, capable of investing from 600,000 to 1.5 million euros, continued to fuel activity on the Prom. Middle Easterners, the British and Scandinavians continued to show an interest, though Italians were more inclined to sell their properties and Russians preferred houses in quieter areas. Figures provided by the 235 agencies in Nice which are members of the SIA association reported that 22 properties on the Promenade des Anglais, offered on a sole-agent basis, were sold between May 2008 and May 2009, and as many from 2009 to 2010, from a stock twice as large. Asking prices were 6,097 €/m2 for the first period and 6,884 €/m2 for the second. At the time of signing the deeds, these prices dropped to 5,203 and 5,352 €/m2 respectively. To summarize, there are more properties for sale, a stable volume of business and a 3 % rise in prices, all indicating that the address can still be considered as a sound investment, as well as a source of immediate enjoyment.

“Exceptions aside, transactions fluctuate on average between 6,000 and 7,000 €/m2 on the most desirable stretch of the Promenade, and from 4,000 to 6,000 €/m2 in the less fashionable sectors. 10,000 €/m2 represents a symbolic barrier which is rarely crossed,” adds Monika Cyrul of Nice Properties. Nothing surprising in that when you realize that properties on the Promenade do not compete with the magnificent buildings on the Croisette. Currently, an apartment of 250 m2 in a bourgeois building adjoining the Negresco, refurbished as new, is under agreement at 1.8 million euros. And a studio of 25 m2, a few hundred metres from Gambetta, has just been sold for 200,000 €. Purists do not include the Quai des Etats-Unis in the Promenade des Anglais, though it is, in fact, its easterly extension. Languishing beneath the Colline du Château, it combines the advantages of being on the seafront, close to the charm of the Old Town and Cours Saleya, and the nearby “Golden Square”, a 5-minute walk away. Here again, few properties are available. The last sale was an apartment of 85 m2 on an upper floor in the Beau Rivage, at 800,000 €. Always hunting for high-class properties, Monika Cyrul sincerely believes in the future of the Quai, which has nothing to envy of Avenue de Verdun, especially as Rue Saint-François de Paule, onto which it backs, is to become semi-pedestrian and could soon attract luxury brandnames. Since the adjustment in prices, foreigners are probably justified in preferring the “Prom” to Boulevard Victor Hugo, deprived of a view of the deep blue sea.