Toulouse : the “Golden Triangle”

“The Saint-Sernin Church lights up the night. With a coral-coloured flower, sprinkled by the sun… Here’s Le Capitole, I’ll take a pause…”, singer Claude Nougaro sets the scene. This native of Les Minimes isn’t the only one to fall for the charm of the historic heart of town. An address which is definitely attracting a lot of interest. When describing its streets and squares, our estate-agents are full of enthusiasm…

“La Ville Rose”, a nickname that Toulouse owes to the terra-cotta brick largely used for buildings in the centre, is home to 440,000 inhabitants. It is experiencing the highest population growth in France, even in Europe. Its nerve centre, the Place du Capitole, offers a pedestrian area of 12,000 m2, marked on the ground by an Occitan cross. While it undoubtedly plays a symbolic role, its shares the limelight with Place Saint-Etienne which grew up around the Cathedral of the same name, built in the 3rd century A.D., rebuilt in the 5th century and constantly modified ever since, and Place Saint-Sernin, named after the Basilica now listed as an Historic Monument, a site of pilgrimage since the 9th century A.D.

“The “Golden Triangle” thus consists of Le Capitole, Saint-Sernin, Saint-Etienne, Ozenne, Les Carmes, Saint-Georges and Wilson, neighbourhoods lying between the Garonne River and the Canal du Midi,” explains Pierre Ragozin of the Agence Immobilière Tolosane. Highly-prized by year-round residents and investors likely to obtain net profitability of 4 %, the area nevertheless has some flagrant disparities, in terms of the housing itself, prices and occupants. Saint-Georges, Saint- Etienne, Ozenne and Les Carmes, favourite addresses among the notables of Toulouse, offer bourgeois buildings characterized by old parquet floors, fire-places, high molded ceilings and inner courtyards. Le Capitole and Saint-Sernin, near the university faculties of law, economics, the AES, “Institut d’Etudes Politiques” and “Ecole Supérieure de Commerce”, dispose more of a patchwork of accommodation, often occupied by students. At the edge of the boulevards, Wilson proposes another distinct world while the shopping street of Rue Alsace-Lorraine features buildings designed by Haussmann. All architectural generations rub shoulders here, even with developments freshly risen from the grounds, in Saint-Anne, Saint-Etienne and on Rue de Metz, the most luxurious capable of attaining 6,000 €/m2. A renovated apartement of 150 m2 in a residence in excellent condition, with a garage, elevator and view of the Cathédrale Saint-Etienne, recently found a taker at 750,000 €, while right now, a seller is asking 425,000 € for a restored apartment of 110 m2 on the Rue des Lois, just behind the faculty. Frequently left to abandon, the communal premises can result in a property losing 20 % of its real value.

“Ozenne, the very wide street hosting the law courts, between the typical market of Les Carmes and the Jardin des Plantes, is the most select and expensive address in the capital of Haute-Garonne,” say Frédérique Julien and Jean-Pierre Corazza. Families of doctors, dentists and other self-empoyed professionals appreciate the proximity of amenities and parking facilities just as much as the smoothly flowing traffic and practical aspects of the site, which is not far from La Rocade. Demand outweighs supply and prices, which have not in fact fallen despite the crisis, remain relatively high. The square metre costs on average about 4,000 €, or close on 5,000 € for a property in excellent condition with a coveted parking place. “The “City of Violets” is as large as its heart, ie., densely concentrated : a central property is, by definition, rare,” add the managers of Ozenne Immobilier.

Anne de la Sauzay, Directress-Manageress of the Mercure Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées Périgord agencies, two entities with expert experience of prestige properties in the centre, says that the average price for 2010 was around 3,692 €/m2 within a range of 3,100 to 4,800 €/m2, pretty much the same ratios as those observed in 2009. On the other hand, the volume of sales took off, with the Carnot agency recording a rise of 150 %. Among her latest transactions, this specialist points to an apartment of 255 m2 with parking place, a short distance from Saint-Etienne, sold for 950,000 € ; another of 248 m2 in a Haussmann building over towards Wilson, at 850,000 € ; and a third apartment of 160 m2 near Le Capitole, sold for 686,000 €. The segment is doing well, despite the shortage of available properties. It is, however, wise to be wary of inopportune increases in costs, especially in the case of smaller apartments. A 2-bedroom apartment of 94 m2 in an 18th-C. mansion, overlooking a beautiful park, sold for 4,755 €/m2, a price practised early in 2008. If activity certainly picked up in the last financial year, the market owes the fact to lower prices and historically low interest rates. It would not be advisable to fall into the pit-falls seen prior to the crunch and lose clients who might then set their sights on more stable neighbourhoods further out. Purchasers of prestige properties are aged between 40 and 55 : they are company directors, self-employed professionals, senior executives, industrialists, from the worlds of showbiz or politics. Current offerings range from a 1-bedroom apartment of 75 m2 at 225,000 €, to a 5-bedroom duplex of 300 m2 with a garden and swimming pool in Les Carmes, bearing a price-tag of 1,575,000 €.