Buying a longère in Brittany, Normandy and western France

What is a longère?

The longère is the house of the countryside of western France: a low house, on one level under a loft, whose rooms line up lengthways, each with its own door onto the yard, and which the cowsheds, the barn or the pigsty extend under the same roof. Built between the 17th and the 19th century by farmers and craftsmen, it turns its façade to the south or the east, and its blind wall to the sea wind. The word comes from Brittany and Normandy; in the Vendée people speak rather of a maison basse (low house), and in the Pays de la Loire of a longère, as in Brittany.

The materials tell the region. Granite and schist, with dressed granite surrounds, in Brittany; timber framing, flint, brick and sometimes thatch in Normandy; white limestone under round tiles in the Vendée, the Charente and the Pays de Retz; tuffeau and schist in Anjou and the Mayenne. Renovated, the longère becomes a single-storey family home, with its converted loft and its former outbuildings opened into large rooms; it is one of the most sought-after character homes, because it is simple to live in and to close up.

Where to buy a longère?

A longère is sought in the countryside, but a nearby countryside: within a quarter of an hour of a beach, a railway station or an old town is what most buyers ask for. The five areas below concentrate Home Select’s search; elsewhere, in the Mayenne, in Anjou or in the Cotentin, the search is run remotely, with the network of partners.

Saint-Malo, Cancale and the Côte d’Émeraude

In the Clos-Poulet, between Saint-Malo, Cancale and the Rance, the granite longère stands beside the malouinière and the village house: hamlets of Saint-Coulomb and Saint-Méloir, the countryside of Saint-Jouan, the banks of the Rance. The page on buying a longère near Saint-Malo describes these hamlets; towards Dinard and Saint-Briac, longères become rarer and dearer, in the Brittany area.

Vannes, the Gulf of Morbihan and Carnac

Around Vannes, the peninsulas of Rhuys and Séné, Baden, Arradon and Plougoumelen keep granite and schist longères under slate, in hamlets that look over the gulf. See buying a longère near Vannes. Towards Carnac and La Trinité-sur-Mer, the longère and the penty sell a few minutes from the beaches, often without a listing.

The Pink Granite Coast and the Finistère

Around Perros-Guirec, Trégastel and Trébeurden, the longère is in pink granite, in the hamlets of the Trégor; in the Finistère, the penty of the Bigouden country and the Crozon peninsula, and the longère of the Léon, with a slate roof and granite gables. These markets are smaller and more discreet: the search there is prepared well in advance, through the network.

Normandy: the Pays d’Auge, the Côte Fleurie and the Pays de Caux

In the Pays d’Auge, behind Honfleur, Deauville and Trouville, the longère is half-timbered, under slate or thatch, amid the pastures and the apple trees; towards Cabourg and the Pays de Caux, it turns to flint and brick. The page on buying a longère near Honfleur describes this market, in the Normandy area.

The Vendée, the islands and the Atlantic coast

On Noirmoutier, on the Île de Ré and on Belle-Île-en-Mer, the low house with coloured shutters is the longère of the islands, rare and sought-after; on the mainland, from the Vendée to the Charente, in the Atlantic coast area, the white limestone longère can still be found at gentler prices, within half an hour of the sea.

How much does a longère cost?

No public statistic gives the price of a longère. The DVF register of sales, published by the tax administration, files it among houses, with the modern detached houses and the village houses. The median price for houses in a commune therefore gives a market benchmark; above all, it tells the gap between the coast and inland, which makes the price of a longère more than its floor area does.

The price of a longère is formed on four things: the distance to the sea or to the town, the hamlet and what surrounds it, the land and its outbuildings, the condition of the building. A restored longère in a hamlet five minutes from a beach of the Côte d’Émeraude or the Gulf of Morbihan is negotiated well above the median; the same longère to renovate, twenty kilometres inland, well below. Comparable sales are sought in the same commune and the neighbouring communes, over several years.

The budget has three lines: the purchase price; the renovation, which a project manager used to old buildings costs before the offer, roof, walls, joinery, utilities, drainage, insulation; and the upkeep, modest on a single-storey longère, heavier when the outbuildings are many. The library dossier on the renovation budget for an older property details these items.

What should you check in the structure of a longère?

The stone walls and damp

The walls of a longère are thick, built with earth or lime mortar, without foundations and almost always without a crawl space: damp rises from the ground, and a cement render, a sealed slab or a badly designed lining traps it. Rising damp is read at the foot of the walls, with saltpetre and blistering renders, and you check that past renovations kept breathable materials, lime, hemp, earth. In the zones delimited by prefectoral order, dry rot (mérule), the fungus of damp timber, is looked for behind panelling and under floors.

The roof, the roof timbers and the thatch

The roof is the first item of expense: slate, nailed or hooked, is read from the loft and from outside, with its ridges, flashings and dormers; the thatch of Norman longères and a few Breton ones is redone in sections, by a thatcher, every twenty to thirty years depending on exposure. The roof timbers, in oak or chestnut, are checked piece by piece: sagging, insects, joints, and the span of the loft joists if you want to convert it.

Drainage, water and electricity

Few longères are connected to mains drainage: the private drainage, septic tank and drain field, is subject to a compulsory inspection attached to the sale file, and a non-compliant installation must be redone within the year after the purchase. Water sometimes comes from a well, to be tested; electricity and heating have often been redone piecemeal. The energy performance certificate of an uninsulated longère is often poor: a house rated E, F or G is sold with an energy audit, which proposes scenarios of works.

• Walls: rising damp, saltpetre, renders, materials of past renovations.
• Roof and roof timbers: slate or thatch, ridges, flashings, dormers, timber of the roof structure, span of the joists.
• Private drainage: inspection report, compliance, cost of bringing it up to standard.
• Water, electricity, heating: well, connections, consumer unit, compliance.
• Dry rot, termites and radon: zones delimited by order, surveys, radon measurement in granite soils.

Extending a longère, converting the loft, converting an outbuilding

Almost every buyer wants to open up, extend or convert their longère: cut large openings in the south wall, convert the loft, open the cowshed into a living room, turn the barn into guest accommodation. Each of these projects depends on the local urban plan and the zoning of the plot: in an agricultural or natural zone, an extension is limited and the change of use of an outbuilding is possible only if the building is listed for it; in a hamlet zoned as urban, the rules are more flexible. Near a monument or in a site patrimonial remarquable (protected heritage area), the architecte des Bâtiments de France gives his agreement on openings, joinery and materials.

Near the sea, the Loi Littoral comes on top: outside built-up areas, the 100-metre strip measured from the upper limit of the shore cannot be built on, extensions are limited in the areas close to the shore, and an isolated building cannot extend beyond what the local urban plan allows. A longère in open coastal countryside is therefore often kept as it is, which is also what makes its value. The guide to buying by the sea details these rules.

• The zoning of the plot in the local urban plan and the extension rules that apply to it.
• The list of buildings whose change of use is permitted, for a barn or a cowshed.
• The planning certificate and, where needed, the opinion of the architecte des Bâtiments de France, requested before the offer.
• The lawful status of works already done: a conservatory, an opening or a loft converted without permission can sometimes be regularised, and sometimes not.