The price of land in the Brittany region

In Brittany as elsewhere, inflation and rising interest rates have reduced the sale of houses in the countryside in 2023. The price of free land and meadows remains stable, with a speculative trend on the coast.

For the five categories – forests, agricultural land and meadows, houses in the countryside, leisure, artificialisation – just under 30,000 transactions were recorded in Brittany in 2023, a decline of 11% compared to 2022. Sales of houses in the countryside are bearing the brunt of inflation and rising interest rates. In value, the market increases from 2.9 billion euros in 2022 to 2.3 billion in 2023.

PRICES OF STABLE LAND
Against all expectations, agricultural land has not flooded the market despite more retirements. “The transferors keep the land to rent it”. Thus, transactions (8,853 sales) are down only 6% compared to 2022. In total, 39,280 hectares of agricultural land changed hands in 2023 for a value of €5.35 million (- 8% compared to to 2022). The average price of land and meadows sold free in Brittany is €5,370/ha in Côtes-d’Armor (stable); 5,220 €/ha in Finistère (+ 1%), 5,240 in Ille-et-Vilaine (- 1%) and 4,950 euros/ha in Morbihan (+ 2%). “We are in a homogeneous agricultural region.” However, price dynamics vary within departments. “The vegetable land of Paimpol can climb up to €12,000/ha.” Speculation on the southern Morbihan coastline has caused the price per hectare to rise by 21%.

PRICE REGULATION
To contain this speculation, Safer Bretagne relies on a regulatory tool supervised by the State: pre-emption in price revisions. For 2023, this right was exercised on 327 agricultural land sales projects, including 141 resulting in a price revision (516 ha). “Half of these revisions took place on the coast, at the request of the communities of Sarzeau, Surzur, the Rhuys peninsula or Saint-Malo. Many individuals dream that one day this agricultural land will become buildable. They are therefore ready to buy by speculating over ten, twenty years,” explains Thierry Couteller. Having become a tax exemption tool, Breton forests also arouse the desires of investors. Their market is growing slightly (558 transactions in 2023 compared to 533 in 2022) but with a higher financial value: €36.7 million in 2023 compared to €29.97 million in 2022.

NATHALIE BEARD