The cities that live all year: Lyon, Montpellier, Toulouse
Active and attractive all year round, France’s regional metropolises are cities people live in, not just pass through. Value is read at the neighbourhood and the building, before the price.
Long-term property investment in France
A long-term purchase is judged on what lasts: location, rarity, build quality, value that holds and passes on. Home Select hunts that market, checks every file and negotiates 6% off the asking price on average.
Why is a long-term purchase a different kind of purchase?
Value is decided by location
A long-term property is judged on what does not move: the address, the exposure, the view, the quality of the building. No listing says whether an address will hold its value over time: that is read street by street, in Lyon as in Biarritz. Alone, you pay the asking price; accompanied, every line of the file is checked before the offer.
Rarity protects better than price
The addresses that keep their value are the ones that cannot be replaced: a noble floor, an open view, a garden in town. They often sell without a listing: Home Select surfaces them before they go on sale through its network of 15,000 partners.
A property to pass on
A long-term purchase is thought out for the next generation: a home you keep, lend to your family, then pass on. Ownership structure, co-ownership and the real condition of the building are checked before the offer, not after signing.
From pied-à-terre to future home
Many buyers purchase today the place they will live in tomorrow: a pied-à-terre in town, a family house on the coast or in the mountains, a future main residence. The property has to suit each of these uses, starting with the next one.
Home Select’s method applied to long-term purchases
The framing sets the real objective: future use, holding horizon, transmission. The brief follows, with location criteria attached.
The hunt runs through the local market: the network surfaces properties, every file passes a technical audit (co-ownership, works, condition of the building, servitudes) before any viewing.
The negotiation builds on the real sales of the area: the purchase price is the first line of the estate, and the offer is defended with the complete file in hand.
The markets where Home Select hunts for long-term buyers
The rare coastline: Côte d’Azur, Basque Country, Atlantic
On the coast, fine addresses cannot be replaced: the view, walking access to the sea and the land make the value. The right purchase is prepared out of season, when negotiation becomes possible again.
The mountains and weekend coastlines
Alps, Normandy, Brittany: dual-season markets or Parisian clientele, where value rests on precise technical criteria, from resort co-ownerships to seafront facades.
Micro-markets
City by city, what holds its value
Value is decided on the micro-market, not on a regional average. Here, for each city, is what carries the value of a long-term purchase and what limits it. The city page goes further, with its medians, its five-year curve and its latest sales.
Provence
- Aix-en-Provence Aix lends itself to a long-term purchase: a city that lives all year, with its university, its international schools and its TGV station, around a protected old centre.
- Marseille Marseille is the most contrasted market on this list: two streets can separate two different realities, and the exact address makes value over time.
- Cassis Cassis is a market of scarcity: supply is tiny and demand permanent, which protects the value of fine addresses.
- La Ciotat La Ciotat is one of the few addresses on the Provence coast where the sea can still be bought at more measured values than its neighbours, in a town that lives all year.
- Avignon Avignon brings together what few heritage cities combine: a university, a court, a hospital and a festival, so a city that lives all year behind its ramparts.
- Bandol In Bandol, value rests on the view: villas that genuinely look at the sea, on the south-facing hills, are structurally rare and often change hands without publicity.
- Sanary-sur-Mer Sanary has what a long-term buyer looks for on the coast: a town that does not close in October.
- Saint-Cyr-sur-Mer Saint-Cyr is a market of family houses: a villa in the vineyard hills or a house near Les Lecques is bought to be kept, opened in summer and passed on.
- Saint-Rémy-de-Provence Saint-Rémy lends itself to a long-term purchase: a complete, lively small town under the ridge of the Alpilles, living all year with its shops, its schools and its Wednesday market.
- Gordes In Gordes, restored stone is the asset: this market is judged on the quality of restoration of dry-stone mas, and that is what holds value over time.
- Lourmarin In Lourmarin, a long-term purchase is made in stone and vines: restored village houses and mas of the hills make up a rare stock, in a market that does not advertise itself.
Côte d’Azur
- Nice Nice is the great city of the Riviera: hospitals, international schools, a university and an airport linking it to every European capital, which makes it today’s pied-à-terre and tomorrow’s home.
- Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat Cap-Ferrat is a market of inheritance: a few hundred properties, and buyers who purchase to live or to pass on.
- Cannes Cannes is the most liquid market on the Côte d’Azur: a fine address is kept and resold there, which makes it a store of value as much as a place to stay.
- Antibes Antibes combines two worlds: a town that lives all year, carried by Sophia Antipolis and its international families, and the discreet properties of Cap d’Antibes or the town houses of old Antibes.
- Saint-Tropez In the gulf of Saint-Tropez, you buy scarcity: its value rests on the exact address, the view and the discretion of the neighbours.
- Menton Menton is the Riviera that lives all year: a permanent population, cross-border workers from Monaco and Italy, a loyal winter clientele, schools and a market open twelve months a year.
- Èze In Èze, value plays on scarcity: the panoramic villas of the corniches are handed over without listing, and a protected view weighs more than any other criterion.
- Mougins Mougins holds a rare equation for a hinterland: a town that lives all year, carried by Sophia Antipolis and by Cannes, at levels more measured than the coast.
- Valbonne Sophia Antipolis is the bedrock of the Valbonne market: thousands of companies and more than thirty nationalities live year-round around the plateau, and the village with them.
- Villefranche-sur-Mer Villefranche-sur-Mer is a coastal town that lives all year: a permanent population, the Nice employment basin ten minutes by train, continuous international demand.
Alps
- Megève Megève is above all a market of families and inheritance: you buy the chalet you will keep.
- Courchevel Courchevel is the most prestigious Alpine market in France, and value there depends less on the purchase price than on the level of finish and a ski-in ski-out position.
- Chamonix Chamonix has one feature that changes everything: the valley lives all year, with two full seasons, its schools, its hospital and an international community settled there.
- Val-d’Isère In Val-d’Isère, the scarcity of stock protects values over the long term, provided you buy the right property in the right place.
- Méribel In Méribel, the architectural charter freezes supply, and it is what protects values over the long term; the task is still to aim at the right quarter and the right property.
- La Clusaz La Clusaz lives on a rare balance, farming maintained and a ski domain over five massifs, which protects values by limiting supply.
- Saint-Gervais-les-Bains Saint-Gervais is a resort that lives all year: families, mountain staff, spa guests and cross-border commuters sustain a life that seasonal resorts never see.
Rhône-Alpes
- Lyon Lyon is the second heritage market in France and one of the safest for a lasting purchase: universities, healthcare, corporate headquarters and a city that lives all year.
- Annecy Annecy is a market stretched by permanent demand: local employment, the proximity of Geneva, schools, and a lake that cannot be replaced.
- Évian-les-Bains The French Lake Geneva market is driven by Geneva: the French shore puts it within reach without its cost of living, which makes it a year-round home, very different from the rest of the Alps.
- Aix-les-Bains Aix-les-Bains lives to the rhythm of the thermal season and the lake, not the school holidays: spa guests, Lyonnais managers and cross-border commuters live there twelve months a year.
- Divonne-les-Bains Divonne is a town that lives all year facing Geneva: cross-border workers, international executives and curists live in its houses and apartments alike, with French schools and a Swiss airport twenty-five minutes away.
- Chambéry Chambéry is a complete town that lives all year, and that is what holds value: the Savoie Mont Blanc university, lycées, the services of a regional capital, and a TGV that widens the pool of buyers beyond the region.
Basque Country
- Biarritz Biarritz is one of the tightest markets in France, carried by a Basque coast that lives all year: schools, hospitals, an airport at Anglet.
- Saint-Jean-de-Luz Saint-Jean-de-Luz is a family market, held by owners who sell rarely: supply is structurally scarce.
- Anglet Anglet is a town growing around a frozen stock, and that scarcity is what holds value on the Basque coast.
- Bayonne Bayonne lets you buy into a town that works all year, carried by employment and families rather than by the season alone.
- Guéthary In Guéthary, value plays on rarity: a few hundred houses, worldwide demand for a frozen stock, and properties that come free only rarely.
- Hossegor Hossegor is a village that stayed small facing worldwide demand, and the scarcity of its stock protects capital.
Atlantic Coast
- Bordeaux Bordeaux brings together a solid employment base, a university, a teaching hospital and two hours from Paris by TGV: a city where people settle for the long term.
- Arcachon Arcachon is a family market, carried by demand from Bordeaux and Paris: the Ville d’Hiver villa or the house at Le Moulleau is kept and passed on.
- Cap Ferret Cap Ferret is a market of a narrow circle: most fine sales are agreed privately.
- La Rochelle La Rochelle lives all year: a university, a hospital, a major marina and a station two and a half hours from Paris.
- Île de Ré The Île de Ré is a closed market, where houses are handed down more than they are sold.
- La Baule La Baule owes its value to a villa stock without equivalent on the Atlantic coast and to a three-hour TGV from Paris.
- Royan Royan offers a rare profile on the Atlantic coast: a stock of 1950s villas to renovate that is still real, in a resort that lives all year.
Occitanie
- Montpellier Montpellier is the most dynamic city on the Mediterranean arc, with demographics that do not falter: you buy here for the long term, in a growing city.
- Toulouse Toulouse brings together what makes a long-term purchase hold: demographics among the most dynamic in France, the aerospace industry, a university and an international airport.
- Collioure Collioure is a miniature market: a supply of a few streets, where every sale is an event and most are never advertised.
- Nîmes Nîmes offers a rare profile: a great town of art, alive all year, where old stock to restore remains within reach.
- Uzès Uzès holds a high level for the Gard, carried by a loyal international clientele and by the scarcity of stock.
- Sète Sète offers a rare profile on this coast: a persistent discount on some quarters, in a port town that lives all year.
- Albi Albi lives all year better than tourist towns: close to 49,000 residents, shops and schools open twelve months out of twelve.
Normandy
- Deauville Deauville lives on a long season and on weekends all year, two hours from Paris: the family house here is genuinely used, not only in summer, and passed on.
- Honfleur Honfleur is a market of character on a tiny supply, two hours from Paris: a house near the Vieux-Bassin or on the Côte de Grâce is kept and lived in at weekends all year.
- Cabourg Cabourg is the resort of a loyal Parisian clientele, two and a half hours away by train, and it also lives all year with its shops, its schools and its market.
- Étretat In Étretat, value plays on rarity: a frozen stock between two cliffs, a demand reinforced since 2020 and carried by their worldwide fame.
Brittany
- Vannes Vannes is a year-round city, carried by its employment area, its university, its hospital and a station two and a half hours from Paris.
- Saint-Malo Saint-Malo is one of the few Breton coastal towns where you can genuinely settle: a secondary school, a hospital, the port and a TGV station make it a town that lives all year, unlike purely seasonal resorts.
- Dinard Dinard is a resort of Belle Époque villas, at the Moulinet or in La Malouine, bought to be kept and passed on.
- Cancale Cancale is a town that works twelve months a year, and the bay, the oysters and the paths keep it alive well beyond July and August.
- Carnac Carnac lives on a short, strong season, but its town stays complete all year, which is rare on this coast.
- Perros-Guirec Perros-Guirec lives on strong summer tourism and a year-round population, which sets it apart from the neighbouring resorts.
Fees
Two offers, paid on success
- 2.5% of the net purchase price
- Exclusive offer The full service, at every budget. Minimum €10,000 incl. VAT.
- 1.5% of the net purchase price
- Confidential offer The same service, dedicated to off-market properties. Reserved for projects of €2m and above.
Home Select is paid 100% on success: nothing is due until you have bought.
Frequently asked questions
What Home Select is asked first
Does Home Select hunt long-term purchases beyond its listed cities?
Yes: each area covered by Home Select has its page, and any other city is handled tailor-made with the same method and network. Île-de-France is served by Home Select’s dedicated website, homeselect.paris.
How does Home Select check a property before the viewings?
Every shortlisted property passes an audit (co-ownership, foreseeable works, condition of the building, exact location) before you travel. Home Select only takes you to the files that hold together, three on average.
What are your fees?
Home Select, a property finder, charges 2.5% of the net purchase price (minimum €10,000 incl. VAT) on the Exclusive offer, or 1.5% on the Confidential offer for projects of €2m and above. Home Select is paid on success only: nothing is due until you have bought.
What happens next
- A property finder reads your request and answers within one working day.
- A first confidential conversation: how you will use the property, the real budget, the non-negotiable criteria, the timing.
- A written brief, and a search started within the week. Nothing is due until you have bought.
Your long-term property project
A first confidential conversation, with no commitment. A property finder answers within one working day.
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