Buying a château, a manor house or a country estate in France

Château, manor house, country house: what are we talking about?

In listings, the word château covers very different realities: the medieval fortress and its towers, the Renaissance château of the Loire Valley, the classical château of the 17th and 18th centuries, the bourgeois 19th-century château built by an industrialist, and sometimes a large family house crowned with a turret. French law gives no definition: usage, the history of the place and often the vanity of the listing decide the word.

The manoir, or manor house, was originally the house of the lord of a modest fief: smaller, more rural and less fortified than a château, it still dominates the landscape of Normandy and Brittany. The demeure, or gentilhommière, is the large house of character that is neither quite a château nor quite a house. Each region then has its own forms, described in detail in the guide to character homes.

Where to buy a château or a manor house in France?

Demand gathers where history left the most country houses and where daily life stays simple: less than three hours from Paris, near a TGV station or an airport, in a region worth living in all year. Six areas come up in almost every search.

Normandy and the Pays d’Auge

The half-timbered Auge manor, amid its pastures and apple trees, two hours from Paris: it is the country house most sought after by Paris families. Home Select hunts it around Deauville and Honfleur, with pages to match: buying a manor house in the Pays d’Auge and buying a manor house near Honfleur, in the Normandy area.

Brittany and the Emerald Coast

The malouinière of the Saint-Malo shipowners, the granite manor on the banks of the Rance, the villa-manor of Dinard and the manor of the Pink Granite Coast form a market of their own, tied to the sea: malouinières and manors near Saint-Malo, manor houses in Dinard and manor houses in Perros-Guirec, in the Brittany area.

The Loire Valley, the Périgord and Burgundy

These are the lands of the château in the classical sense: Renaissance and grand-siècle châteaux in Touraine and Anjou, châteaux and gentilhommières in the Périgord, wine châteaux in Burgundy. Supply is wider, prices more varied, and the distance to a station often decides value. Home Select runs the search there remotely, with its network of partners.

The Sologne and its hunting estates

Between the Loire and the Cher, the Sologne sells estates more than houses: a château or a hunting lodge in the middle of woods, ponds and heath, less than two hours from Paris. Value lies in the hectares, the quality of the woods, the ponds and the rights attached to them; the house itself sometimes comes second. These estates pass between families and rarely list.

The Bordeaux region and Provence

Around Bordeaux, the country house often merges with the vineyard: wine château, chartreuse, maison de maître, described on the page maison de maître in Bordeaux. In Provence, the bastide is the house of the parliamentarians and merchants, with its avenue of plane trees: bastides in Aix-en-Provence and bastides in Marseille, in the Provence area.

How much does a château or a manor house cost?

No public statistic gives the price of a château. The DVF register of sales, published by the French tax authority, files country houses among houses, without telling a longère from a malouinière. The house median of a town is therefore a distant benchmark, useful to place the local market, never to value a country house.

The price of a country house is formed elsewhere: the area of the land and its nature, pastures, woods, vines or park; the outbuildings, staff quarters, stables, caretaker’s house; the condition of the roofs and structures; any protection as a historic monument; the distance to a station, an airport and schools. Two châteaux of comparable size may trade in a ratio of one to three. Home Select documents each property with the comparable actual sales of the region before any offer.

What does protection as a historic monument change?

A building may be listed, inscrit, or scheduled, classé, as a historic monument, scheduling being the highest level of protection. On a scheduled monument, restoration, repair or alteration works require the authorisation of the state services and are carried out under their supervision; on a listed monument, works go through planning consent and the agreement of the administration. Protection may cover all or part of the building: façades and roofs, certain interiors, sometimes the park.

Protection radiates around the monument: in the surroundings of a historic monument, within a defined perimeter or, failing that, within a radius of 500 metres and in its field of view, works that alter the exterior of a building require the agreement of the Architecte des Bâtiments de France. An unprotected country house can therefore be governed by the protection of the church next door.

What should be checked before buying a country house?

On an old country house, five items concentrate most of the risk. They are read in the survey file, in the invoices of past works and on site, with a heritage architect or craftsmen skilled in old buildings, before the offer and not after the preliminary contract.

• The roofs and the timber frames: slate, tile or thatch, age of the covering, condition of the rafters, gutters and leadwork.
• Damp in the walls and cellars, and in certain areas defined by prefectoral order, termites and dry rot.
• The networks: electricity, heating, water, and private sanitation, inspected by the public service for non-collective sanitation.
• Energy performance: a house rated E, F or G is sold with an energy audit, which prices the recommended renovation works.
• The permits: converted outbuildings, pools, extensions, each construction must have been authorised, otherwise it becomes your problem.

Home Select checks every document of the file before you commit and tells you what the listing does not say; have the works priced by an architect or craftsmen of your choice, the estimate being the basis of a serious negotiation.