Habas and the surrounding area, from houses to farms

At the gateway to the Basque country and Le Béarn, this little town and its neighbours offer a setting in which nature takes the lion’s share.

Habas is only 35 minutes from the ocean and hardly an hour from the mountains and Spanish border. Dax, the main commune in the region, is not far away, and a string of villages of different sizes add liveliness to this area extending over 25 to 30 kilometres. Here, housing is mainly “horizontal”, shared out between village houses, contemporary villas, small detached homes, Landaise farmhouses, manors and châteaux. History reminds us that in this part of Les Landes, nearly all the villages had their own castle and its lord. Nowadays, very few of them come up for sale, though they are part and parcel of the landscape and represent the past. Private mansions are divided into those to be restored and those which have already been rehabilitated. The first are priced around 250,000 €. If it is in good condition, a manor in an elevated position, with a guardians’ house and stables in extensive grounds, will cost about 850,000 €. Parisians and buyers from the Côte d’Azur appreciate these types of properties, which they sometimes transform into guest-houses.

In the villages, houses are built on two or three floors. When renovation is on the cards, their prices range from 100,000 to 120,000 €. Houses on more recent estates are popular among families looking for living space of about 90 m2 with a small garden, for which they pay from 170,000 to 200,000 €. If they are not on estates, small “pavillons” post slightly lower prices, from 130,000 to 180,000 €, for 70 to 90 m2. They are to the taste of local workers who drive 20 to 30 minutes to reach the motorway via Bayonne. The many Landaise farmhouses in this region, half-timbered or not, offer typical architecture, generous volumes and luxuriant settings in little valleys and woods. If it has been renovated with quality materials and has preserved original features, a 4-bedroom Landaise farm of 130 m2 in 1,800 m2 of grounds will cost 300,000 €. Recently, one example of 420 m2 in perfect condition found a taker at 350,000 €. If it is in need of restoration, it will be priced under 150,000 €. Currently, buyers are thinner on the ground than they were a few years ago. The English, who were very keen on this type of home, have disappeared, making way for French buyers from the region around Paris, Bordeaux or the south-east. Once again, when they are not acquired as family residences, these farmhouses are sometimes transformed into guest-houses. “At the moment, the market for sales is sluggish and these atypical properties can stay on our files for quite a long time,” says Annie Collin of AC Immobilier. In fact, while a recovery seems to be getting slowly underway, it is still closely dependent on movements in the financial markets. “The fact that many properties are still over-valued acts as a brake on our activity,” explains Lionel Gourgues of the Agence Chalossaise.

First-time buyers who saw the zero interest mortgage disappear find it increasingly hard to become home-owners. They therefore fall back on rentals, a very buoyant market in this region. Long-term or seasonal, it sees a lot of activity. A 2-bedroom apartment in town rents for 450 €/month ; for a small 3-bedroom house, one would pay 650-680 €/month, while for larger surface areas, 800 to 1,000 €/month. In the summer season, a house in Habas with a swimming pool rents for 1,500-1,800 € per week. As for building land, it is virtually non-existent. In Habas, the squre metre is pegged at 35 to 40 €. Attractive but unserviced plots of 1,500 m2 in the countryside, as in Taller, can be found for 40,000 €. One must then be prepared to build and live further out from the towns.