North of Toulouse

Respectively 12 and 33 km from the City of Violets, the communes of Castelmaurou and Grenade propose alternatives to city life without depriving their residents of the amenities and infrastructures required for everyday living. The first has retained a village atmosphere, the second makes up for being being further out by real practicality and a pleasant life-style.

Within the greater urban area of Toulouse, lying north-east of the capital of Haute-Garonne, Castelmaurou has about 3,500 inhabitants. Reached by the A68 motorway and Route Départementale 888, the village has a primary school and crèche, a post-office, sports and cultural clubs and a cinema. The Midi-Pyrénées Football League and a federation pre-training centre are to be found within the locality, 75 % of which is comprised of agricultural land and open nature. Home to 7,450 people, Grenade is equidistant from the Pink City and Montauban, the prefecture of Le Tarn-et-Garonne. It serves as an administrative, economic and residential centre for the “community of communes” of Save-et-Garonne and Le Pays Tolosan. Offering schools up to intermediate level, the town is laid out like a checkerboard around its superb market-hall.

“Fifteen minutes from the metro line, Castelmaurou is also the furthest village benefitting from regular Toulouse bus services,” says Laurence Guiraud of Castelmaurou Immobilier. “Far from the colourless model of too many dormitory towns one finds just beyond the peripheries of large cities, it offers a pleasant, typical setting, a good choice of clubs and associations and a varied calendar of events.” Most of the buyers work in Toulouse, some in Blagnac, even Lavaur or Montauban. Traffic flows relatively smoothly in all directions. A “pavillon” of average quality with 4/5 main rooms and a garden of 800 m2 can be had for under 300,000 €. As for detached houses of 140-180 m2, in good condition, with grounds of 3,000-4,000 m2, they range from 350,000 to 600,000 €, depending on their year of construction, condition, surface area, decoration and location. The bulk of sales nevertheless revolve around the 300,000 € mark. There are lots of visits, but completions are not easy. Purchasers are demanding, as are tenants, in fact. The gap is widening between pre- and post-2000 homes. Those built in the 1980’s, characterized by small windows and cramped rooms, are really becoming obsolete. On the other hand, a lot of clients are looking for building land, despite its scarcity. The cheapest plot of 1,000 m2 in an urbanized zone costs 150,000 ?. “The countryside at the gateway to the town” is Castelmaurou’s main argument, and it carries a lot of weight.

“The tram now goes as far as Beauzelle, 15 km from Grenade,” says Thierry Giner of Atout Immobilier. “ Between Toulouse and Montauban, Beauzelle is 29 km from Blagnac and AéroConstellation, a zone of about 642 acres created in 2001, now dedicated to the construction, maintenance and assembly of the Airbus A380. This pool of employment is one of the main sources of new residents in Grenade.” Local on-site buyers pay up to 200,000 € for village houses of 100-110 m2 or small houses of 80 m2 on estates. The high cost of land, a rare commodity in this area, is making itself felt. “The most modest building plot fetches 100,000 €, which means monthly repayments of 600 € over 20 years. That figure already says a great deal about the difficulties encountered by young working couples.” Able to pay 300,000 €, executives in Blagnac set their sights on detached houses of 150 m2 with quality appointments, in grounds of around 1,000 m2. Beyond that level, the volume of business is rather low. By way of example, Thierry Giner mentions the recent sale of a property of 230 m2 in grounds of 11,600 m2 benefitting from a pool and jacuzzi, at 490,000 €. Transferred to the region, the new owners arrived from Paris with a hefty budget. Demand is steady but, unfortunately, supply lacks a certain realism in terms of initial price estimates, or quite simply a choice of available properties. Other brakes on activity include audacious or even indecent offers on the part of potential buyers, and the increasingly harsh terms applied to the granting of mortgages. Our estate-agent says he is keeping a particularly close eye on up-coming developments : “Suppression of the zero interest loan is likely to have a big effect on the property scene. Making building land available would be one way of stimulating activity.”