Real estate in the new town centre in Nantes

Leafy and avant-garde, the main town in the département of Loire-Atlantique offers its 287,900 inhabitants ideal living conditions. Elected “Euro­pean Green Capital” for 2013, Nantes has undergone an exemplary metamorphosis, clearly taking the environment into consideration while developing its urban areas.

The new town centre in Nantes Leafy and avant-garde, the main town in the département of Loire-Atlantique offers its 287,900 inhabitants ideal living conditions. Elected “Euro­pean Green Capital” for 2013, Nantes has undergone an exemplary metamorphosis, clearly taking the environment into consideration while developing its urban areas. With its historic centre, well-preserved and pedestrian, its efficient public transport systems - tramway, Chronobus, Bicloos (self-service bikes) - and its rich cultural life, the capital of western France, winner of the “Town of Art and History” label in 2011, draws various types of buyers. They are looking for bourgeois apartments, practical homes with lifts in convenient locations, or charming family residences in pleasant neighbourhoods with good amenities. Year after year, Nantes remains in France’s top squad of towns where the living is easy. Ranked third in terms of population growth, it is chalking up remarkable economic development, given today’s conditions.

“Our clients’ interest in the town centre continues to rise, whereas areas previously highly-prized such as Procé and Le Petit Port are now less widely sought-after,” says Diane Morel, manageress of the Talensac Immobilier agency she acquired in April, 2013. The type of property in most demand is a 2-bedroomed apartment. “In charming old buildings, with parquet floors and old features, or in residences built in the 1950’s, high-quality properties are affordable with budgets starting at 350,000 €,” explains our specialist, who also mentions her clients’ extremely high demands. “Today, it’s not rare for some of them to visit 30 to 40 different properties before making up their minds. Furthermore, given their long lists of criteria, it is becoming hard to provide a satisfactory number of quality properties to suit each individual buyer. Sellers are well aware of this, and consequently tend to over-estimate their properties.” In the case of houses, buyers are scarcer on the ground. The agency’s files contain some lovely old residences in the neighbourhoods of Saint-Pasquier, Saint-Félix, Blanche de Castille, Sainte-Thérèse, La Chapelle-sur-Herbe and towards Boulevard Général Buat. Up for sale from 700,000 to 900,000 €, they benefit from gardens and four or five bedrooms.

On the other hand, in the old working-class neighbourhood of Perverie, houses to renovate attract lots of families, especially as extensions are possible and the area is close to schools, the tramway and Chronobus. “Here, you can find a house for 430,000 €,” says Vincent de Poulpiquet, manager of the Poulpiquet Immobilier agency he opened in 2009. For this agency too, the entire area covered by the town centre comprises the core of its buoyant activity. “2014 has gotten off to a good start, as did 2013,” comments Vincent de Poulpiquet, whose clientele consists of a mixed bag of first-time buyers, retirees wanting an active and culture-oriented life-style, couples looking for pleasant 2-bedroomed apartments, and well-off executives targeting Nantes’s classiest neighbourhoods and wanting to acquire an apartment of character - particularly in one of the handsome 19th-C. buildings in neighbourhoods such as Graslin, Cathédrale and Château. The market for new properties also proposes high-quality properties offering contemp­orary architecture, as exemplified by Le Carré Feydeau, a new development of 76 apartments right next to the iconic neighbourhoods of Graslin-Commerce and Decré-Bouffay. “The property market here in Nantes is well-balanced. The only fly in the ointment is the lack of buildings with lifts,” comments our specialist, adding that an apartment of 70 m2 in the centre can be found from 220,000 €.