Bordeaux, Dordogne and the South-West: price bands by product type
Four product types dominate non-resident sales in this region, and they price on almost unrelated logics. Bordeaux intra-boulevards (Chartrons, Jardin Public, Triangle d'Or, Saint-Pierre) sits at 6,500 to 9,000 euros per square metre on renovated Napoléon III apartments, with a premium above 10,000 for signed-architect façades on the quais. Bordeaux immediate belt (Caudéran, Bastide, Talence north) trades at 4,500 to 6,000. The Dordogne and Lot stone country house market, which is the classic British second-home segment, runs at 2,400 to 4,000 euros per square metre on renovated properties with outbuildings and a pool, and considerably less on unrestored farmhouses. Saint-Émilion, Médoc and Sauternes vineyard properties price on the vine surface, not the living area: working AOC vines sit at 150,000 to 2,500,000 euros per hectare depending on classification, with Saint-Émilion Grand Cru Classé at the top and Côtes-de-Bordeaux appellations at the lower end. Finally, the Basque coast (Biarritz, Saint-Jean-de-Luz, Guéthary) behaves more like the Riviera than the rest of the South-West, at 7,000 to 12,000 euros per square metre in prime seafront positions.
View data as table
| Product type | Indicative mid-range €/m² |
|---|---|
| Bordeaux intra-boulevards (Chartrons, Jardin Public, Triangle) | €7,500 |
| Bordeaux immediate belt (Caudéran, Bastide, Talence) | €5,200 |
| Dordogne and Lot stone country house, renovated with pool | €3,200 |
| Basque coast prime (Biarritz, Saint-Jean-de-Luz, Guéthary) | €9,500 |
How local notaires handle non-resident files
The Gironde, Dordogne, Lot and Pyrénées-Atlantiques notaires are, on average, more comfortable with non-resident files than their colleagues in purely domestic departments, because British, Dutch, Belgian and increasingly American sellers have been a steady stream of work since the mid-1990s. Bilingual clerks are common in Bergerac, Sarlat, Eymet, Périgueux, Biarritz and central Bordeaux. The practical consequence is that compromis drafts arrive with non-resident clauses pre-populated, power-of-attorney templates exist in English, and the études know which accredited representative firms return calls on British mobile hours. Rural études in the Dordogne and Lot run on a calendar tied to agricultural and inheritance rhythms, so expect slower responses in July, August and the week of Toussaint. Rentrée in early September is the busiest period of the year for residential completions, and spring (April and May) is the busiest for vineyard transactions because stock valuation is cleanest before the new vintage starts.
The accredited representative requirement in practice
The 150,000 euros threshold clears on most South-West sales, but not all. A modest Dordogne farmhouse at 180,000 euros triggers the requirement, while an unrestored ruin at 110,000 euros does not. Fees on this region tend to sit at the lower end of the national range, between 0.6 per cent and 1.0 per cent of the sale price, because the transaction mix is heavy on sub-million-euro residential files and the competition between firms serving the British seller base is intense. Expect a flat-fee option (typically 2,200 to 3,500 euros) on files below 400,000 euros, which often beats a percentage quote. Vineyard and prime Bordeaux files sit higher, at 1.0 to 1.4 per cent, because of the complexity added by SAFER clearance, stock valuation, and sometimes the holding structure (SCI or SCEA) that needs to be unwound.
A tip specific to vineyards and stone country houses
On a stone country house sold with outbuildings, a barn, a pigeonnier or a gîte, ask the notaire to list each building in the deed with its own cadastral reference and its own share of the sale price. This matters for two reasons. First, it lets the accredited representative allocate invoiced works to the correct building for the capital gains base, which can meaningfully reduce the taxable gain when you have spent heavily on, say, the gîte conversion but less on the main house. Second, it protects you if the buyer later disputes a defect; the limitation of liability is easier to argue when the deed documents the state of each building separately. On a vineyard, the equivalent discipline is to split the sale price between the vines (per hectare), the chai (per square metre), the residential château (per square metre) and the stock (at inventory). A single lumped-sum deed almost always costs more in tax than a properly allocated one.
Worked example
A British couple sells a renovated four-bedroom stone house near Eymet in the Dordogne for 485,000 euros in 2026, having bought it for 245,000 euros in 2012. Basis: purchase 245,000 plus 19,600 of notarial fees at acquisition plus 68,000 of invoiced works (new roof, two bathrooms, pool, electrics) for a total of 332,600 euros. Raw gain: 152,400 euros. Holding period 14 years: income-tax taper at 6 per cent per year from year 6, so 9 years at 6 per cent, 54 per cent off; taxable base 70,104 euros; income-tax layer at 19 per cent, 13,320 euros. Social-charges taper at 1.65 per cent per year from year 6, so 14.85 per cent off; taxable base 129,758 euros; layer at 7.5 per cent solidarity levy (UK residents covered by UK NIC, certificate required), 9,732 euros. No surtax (gain below 50,000 taxable threshold per seller). Accredited representative fee at a flat 2,800 euros (sub-500,000 file). Total French tax-side burden: roughly 25,850 euros. Form 2048-IMM filed, funds released at the deed, net proceeds wire to a UK sterling account with the representative confirming the social-charges reduction three weeks after deed.
Pitfall to avoid
The South-West pitfall is the undocumented renovation. British and Dutch owners have, over two decades, invested heavily in their Dordogne and Lot properties, but a large share of that spend went to artisans paid partly in cash or with handwritten invoices that the French tax office will refuse as proof of works. Without proper French-format invoices showing TVA, the artisan's SIRET, and a description of the work, the accredited representative cannot add those costs to the capital gains base, and your taxable gain inflates accordingly. On a 250,000 euros spend over twenty years, losing 60 per cent of the paper trail can add 15,000 to 25,000 euros of extra tax at sale. Start the paperwork archaeology a year before listing: retrieve invoices from artisans, reconstruct missing ones where legally possible, and ask the representative which documentary standards the regional tax office will accept.
Pro tip
The British seller backlog is a real phenomenon in the Dordogne. Since 2021, a meaningful share of British owners have decided to sell for Brexit-related reasons (the 90-day Schengen rule, the loss of free healthcare access, the weaker pound at certain moments), and the resulting supply push has lengthened listing times in the sub-400,000 euros segment to nine or twelve months in some villages. If you price against asking prices rather than recent deed prices, you will list too high and sit. Ask the notaire for the last twelve months of deed prices on comparable properties within a ten-kilometre radius (a free service from chambres départementales), and price at or slightly below the median of that list. I have watched sellers who priced 8 per cent above the median sit for fourteen months, and sellers who priced at the median close within four.
Key takeaways
- South-West pricing splits into Bordeaux intra-boulevards, the Bordeaux belt, the Dordogne and Lot country-house market, and the Basque coast. Each priced on its own logic.
- Vineyard sales price per hectare of vines, not per square metre, and require SAFER clearance delays in the compromis.
- Accredited representative fees are on the low end nationally (0.6 to 1.0 per cent), with flat-fee options below 400,000 euros.
- Split the sale price across buildings and vineyard assets explicitly in the deed to protect the capital gains allocation.
- Reconstruct the works paper trail a year before listing; undocumented renovation is the single biggest regional trap.
Frequently asked questions
Are South-West notaires used to handling British non-resident sellers?
Very much so. Notaires in Bergerac, Eymet, Sarlat, Périgueux and the Dordogne valley have processed British second-home files continuously since the 1990s, and most études in those towns keep at least one clerk who handles Anglo files as a specialty. Bilingual attestations and international wire instructions are routine, though post-Brexit apostille requirements on UK-origin documents still cause friction.
Does selling a vineyard trigger a different fiscal representative process?
A working vineyard sold with its SAFER clearance is still residential-and-agricultural real estate for article 244 bis A purposes, so the accredited representative rule applies in the same way. The complexity is upstream: the SAFER pre-emption delay, the stock valuation for the current vintage, and the split between built and viticultural parcels in the deed. Expect the representative to ask for a detailed inventory before quoting.
Is Bordeaux intra-boulevards priced closer to Paris or to the provinces?
Neither, really. Bordeaux intra-boulevards sits in a tier of its own for regional France, with prime Chartrons and Jardin Public addresses at 6,500 to 9,000 euros per square metre on renovated Napoléon III apartments, well above Toulouse or Montpellier and well below Paris. The submarket behaves more like Nantes or Lyon than like a classic second-home region.
How long does a typical Dordogne sale take from compromis to signing?
Budget four to five months. British sellers in particular often need to source a lost birth certificate or apostilled marriage document from the UK, which adds two to three weeks. Rural études also batch their signing calendars around court-appointed notarial duties, so last-minute date changes are not uncommon.