The average price per m² in Albert is 1 592 €/m² for an apartment, based on actual notarised (DVF) sales. About 15 transactions are recorded each year.
Mood illustration of Albert, in the Ancre valley at the heart of the Somme.
In Albert, the benchmark price stands at 1 592 €/m² for an apartment. That level reflects the market of a medium-sized town of the Somme, the third municipality of the department by population, where the brick house dominates and where the supply of apartments remains concentrated in the rebuilt centre. These values come from the DVF database, which records sales actually registered before notaries, and not from asking-price estimates. They give an order of magnitude: each property still has to be assessed according to its condition, its location and its floor area.
Prices from the DVF file (Demandes de valeurs foncières, published by the DGFiP), transactions actually recorded at the notary at municipality level. Cross-referenced with the Notaires de France - INSEE indices. Learn more about our methodology.
The Albert market is that of a medium-sized town of the Somme, carried by an industrial and aeronautical employment area and by prices that have stayed affordable. Demand comes above all from local households buying their main residence, families and first-time buyers drawn by the brick house with a garden. The volume of transactions remains measured, which makes each sale sensitive to the specific features of the property, its condition, its location and its closeness to the shops and the station, more than to any single market trend.
Over the longer term, the path of prices depends on two factors. On one side, the vitality of aeronautical employment around Méaulte and the closeness of Amiens and Arras support steady demand. On the other, energy performance is becoming decisive on an older brick stock: well-insulated properties gain in value, the least efficient ones are discounted and weigh on selling times. The renovation of the buildings that came out of the reconstruction is one of the challenges of the local market for the years to come.
Albert sits below the large towns of its sector: its prices remain distinctly lower than those of Amiens, Arras and Cambrai, which makes it an affordable market in the north of the Somme.
Albert stretches along the Ancre valley, a river that crosses the municipality before joining the Somme, some thirty kilometres north-east of Amiens. The town once bore the name of Encre, recorded from the 9th century onwards. It took its present name in 1620: after the assassination of Concino Concini, favourite of Marie de Médicis and marquis of Encre, Louis XIII entrusted the territory to Charles d'Albert, duc de Luynes, whose name took hold over the municipality.
In the 19th century, Albert became an industrial town. The first textile spinning mills were followed by metalworking and machine-tool manufacture, to the point that the municipality adopted in 1874 the motto Vis mea ferrum, iron is my strength. On the eve of 1914, several thousand workers were employed in its workshops. The First World War hit the town head-on: sitting on the front of the Battle of the Somme, Albert was almost entirely destroyed. The basilica of Notre-Dame-de-Brebières, a Marian sanctuary crowned by a dome and a gilded statue of the Virgin, became a symbol of the conflict when the Virgin, struck by a shell in 1915, stayed leaning horizontally above the square without falling.
The town was rebuilt in the 1920s, in brick and in an Art déco style that still marks its centre and its basilica, raised again identically. Albert keeps today a strong industrial and aeronautical tradition: the factory founded by Henry Potez at Méaulte, a neighbouring municipality, has become one of the large sites of Airbus Atlantic, close to the Albert-Picardie aerodrome. The town also hosts the Somme 1916 museum, laid out in underground galleries, which recalls the history of the Great War on this territory.
According to INSEE, the French national statistics institute, Albert has around 9 521 inhabitants, which makes it the third town of the Somme. The market is aimed first of all at local households: families, first-time buyers and working people employed in the industrial and aeronautical employment area of the sector, who buy above all their main residence. The stock is largely made up of brick town houses inherited from the post-war reconstruction, completed by apartments in the centre. Demand remains supported by prices that have stayed affordable compared with the large neighbouring cities and by the closeness of Amiens and Arras.
The benchmark price in Albert stands at 1 592 €/m² for an apartment. That figure comes from the DVF data, the sales actually signed before notaries. It is an average: depending on the floor area, the condition and the location, a renovated brick house or an older dwelling to bring up to standard can move appreciably away from that base.
The rebuilt centre, around the basilica and the square, concentrates the shops and the brick buildings of the 1920s, valued for everyday life close at hand. The residential and low-rise detached districts offer houses with a garden, sought after by families. Properties close to the station and to the roads towards Amiens and Arras remain among the most in demand on the local market.
Albert has a station on the railway line between Amiens and Arras, which links it directly to those two cities. The municipality is also close to the Albert-Picardie aerodrome and to the aeronautical hub of Méaulte. That service, combined with prices more affordable than in the metropolitan areas, explains the interest of working people who are employed in the sector while looking for the setting of a medium-sized town.
The local market is above all a market of houses. The brick of the reconstruction gives the town a stock of town houses and detached houses that forms the dominant product. The supply of apartments exists mainly in the centre and suits a first purchase or a contained budget, but most transactions concern individual housing. The choice depends on your project, between family life and a more compact home.
Part of the building stock dates from the reconstruction of the 1920s: condition, insulation and energy performance are to be examined closely on these brick houses. The town also lies on a former front sector, which can call for precautions during earthworks. Before any project, it is useful to consult the local planning scheme at the town hall to check the rules that apply to a plot.
This analysis is published by Immover, an independent observatory founded by Antony Barbier. Data sourced from official sources (DVF, INSEE, Notaries of France).