La Seyne-sur-Mer, a mixed bag of housing

This commune in the Var, the second largest in the département with 61,515 inhabitants, lies on the Mediterranean shore. A seaside resort which owes its development to ship building, it offers sandy beaches and a fishing harbour.

La Seyne-sur-Mer lies between Marseille and Saint-Tropez. Touching the borders of the capital of département 83, it be­longs to the “communauté d’agglomération” of Toulon Provence Méditerranée. Architect Fernand Pouillon designed the neo-Provençal homes built in Les Sablettes after the Second World War. The town’s shipbuilding activity began two centuries earlier. In 1973, before the oil crisis, the site employed 5,000 people. Twelve years later, the last shipyard closed its doors. In search of a new livelihood, the town set its sights on the tourist industry. The sandy beach of Les Sablettes is the most well-known, while the forest of Janas stretches out as far as Cap Sicié.

“Of every five sales handled by Acor’Immo, an agency in the hyper-centre, two are rental investments,” says Adeline Boz. A good example is a fully renovated 1-bedroom apartment of 37 m2, with neither terrace nor parking place, sold for 95,000 € and likely to be rented out at 480-500 € per month. Investors are rarely prepared, however, to content themselves with a yield of 5 %. The task for the estate-agent is to find competitive properties. The other three transactions concerned main homes : a 3-bedroom apartment priced at 130,000 €, another at 120,000 €, and a house of 115 m2 with a garden of 500 m2 just outside La Seyne-sur-Mer, at 430,000 €. Comparable to some neighbourhoods in Toulon West, just next door, the area is undoubtedly one of the most affordable in the region. But drastic terms imposed by banks for mortgages combined with persistently high demands on the part of certain sellers prevent market activity from flowing along smoothly.

“There’s no point deluding oneself, it’s now very hard to obtain a yield of over 4-5 %,” comments Magali Fantino of the Helion agency. Among the investors, a distinction should be drawn between quasi-professionals looking for houses to split up, and private individuals looking for long-term assets. The centre is targeted by buyers with relatively low budgets, while the area to the south draws retirees from within the region or elsewhere in France. Perfectly renovated, an old apartment offering a view of the sea ranges from 3,500 to 4,000 € per sq. metre. A town house in the centre, near all amenities, can be had from 250,000 to 280,000 €, as long as the buyer is willing to undertake refurbishment. To the south or on the residential hillsides, a villa of 105 m2 with a garden of 600 m2 costs around 390,000 €, with spikes as soon as one gets closer to the sea and the zone of Les Tamaris.