Confidence returns for property buyers in Nantes

Sales volumes are increasing and prices are stabilizing in Nantes and its immediate periphery. The city center remains attractive to investors and houses in the near suburbs enjoy renewed interest from buyers searching for first or second homes.

After a relatively bleak performance in 2014, Nantes property market is currently imbued with cautious optimism once again. Despite not yet being on par with record activity levels reached eight years ago, property transactions are steadily increasing. This is mainly due to stable prices — allowing Nantais property to remain affordable with average prices at just under 2,600 euros per square meter — paired with low interest rates.

The only observable slump recorded surprisingly affects the city center, a customarily sure buy. There, traffic and parking issues are encouraging buyers searching for property to live in to prospect further out, in the residential west for instance where houses with gardens are abundant. The growth in demand for such properties by well-off purchasers reaches 20% per year in areas such as Chantenay-Sainte-Anne and Dervallières-Zola, where transactions exceeding half a million euros are increasingly frequent. Despite rising interest in the city’s periphery, investors do continue to buy central apartments and studios to rent out to Nantes’ numerous students.

Capital city of the Pays de la Loire region and the Loire-Atlantique department — and as these names indicate, perched on the bank of the Loire River — Nantes is rich in attractive attributes. As the largest city in northwestern France and sixth largest in the country as a whole, Nantes has won numerous titles in the last ten years, such as European Green Capital, “most livable city in Europe” and fourth most innovative French city.

These qualities have sparked renewed attention in the Atlantic coastal town, with buyers encouraged by affordable property prices. In the east of the city, purchasers can find homes for 2,700 euros per square meter along the Poilus, Dalby and Jules-Verne boulevards. As little as 2,000 euros per m2 buys budget homes out of the city center, for instance in Saint-Herblain, a commune to the west connected to Nantes by tram. The city’s island — l’île de Nantes — is set to gain value in the near future, with property prices on the east of the island starting a little under 2,300 euros per m2.

Capital.fr features a detailed price map of Nantes, specifying property costs per square meter area by area.

Photo credit: Wikipedia / Pirmil