The average price per m² in Audierne is 2 901 €/m² for an apartment, based on actual notarised (DVF) sales. About 22 transactions are recorded each year.
Atmospheric illustration of Audierne, in the Finistère.
In Audierne, the benchmark price stands at 2 901 €/m² for an apartment. That average covers a stock marked by the seafront and the estuary of the Goyen: fishermen's houses packed along the quays, older buildings in the town centre and more recent construction set back. The share of second homes, significant in this coastal municipality, weighs on values, particularly for properties close to the water. These figures come from DVF data, the transactions actually registered before notaries, not from estimates. The annual volume of sales remains limited.
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 Audierne market is strongly tied to its status as a coastal municipality. Second-home demand, driven by buyers drawn to the harbour, the bay and the beaches, supports the values of properties close to the water, independently of local employment. That pressure bears on a limited supply, constrained by the relief of the ria and by an old centre already built up. The weight of the coast explains prices above those of several inland municipalities of the Finistère, despite the distance from the main employment centres.
The second driver is tourism, which has become the main economic activity after the decline of deep-sea fishing and the canneries. Summer visitor numbers, the closeness of the pointe du Raz and the appeal of the harbour sustain seasonal and rental demand. The 2016 merger with Esquibien widened the territory towards the bay and its beaches, reinforcing that seaside dimension. For a buyer, the location relative to the water and the intended use, main or second home, count more than rapid price movements, which remain contained at this scale.
Audierne sits above several inland municipalities of the Finistère, but below the most sought-after neighbouring seaside resorts. Its price level reflects its coastal character.
Audierne is an old harbour, mentioned in the form Odierna in an atlas by the Venetian cartographer Pietro Vesconte as early as 1313. Set at the head of the ria of the Goyen, sheltered from the open sea, the site has always drawn its life from fishing and coastal trade. The registers of the port of Bordeaux record, in 1482 and 1483, the arrival of ships from Audierne, proof of maritime trade already active at the end of the Middle Ages. The municipality was long a dependency of the neighbouring parish of Esquibien before establishing itself as a harbour town in its own right.
In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Audierne became an important fishing port: there were about one hundred and fifty longboats in the middle of the seventeenth century and close to two thousand three hundred inhabitants. In 1791 a school of hydrography was founded there. The nineteenth century industrialised the activity: the first sardine canneries opened in 1872, and by around 1900 the municipality counted some fifteen canning factories employing several thousand sailors and women workers. The metal bridge over the Goyen, then the arrival of the railway in 1894 and 1912, opened up the harbour.
That maritime rise left a strong mark on the town. The centre stretches along the quay, lined with fishermen's houses and former canning workshops, while more recent housing has spread to the heights and the hinterland. Birthplace, in 1865, of the first French sea rescue society, Audierne has kept a living harbour identity, today turned towards langoustine fishing and tourism. On 1 January 2016, the municipality merged with Esquibien, widening its territory towards the bay of Audierne and its long beaches.
Audierne has 3 727 inhabitants according to INSEE, the French national statistics office, in a municipality created in 2016 by the merger with Esquibien. The market combines two kinds of buyer: year-round residents, often attached to harbour life, and second-home buyers won over by the coast, the bay and its beaches. That share of second homes, marked in the Breton seaside municipalities, orients demand towards properties close to the water. The stock mixes fishermen's houses in the town centre, older apartments and more recent bungalows set back. Retirees, families and coastal buyers make up most of the profiles.
In Audierne, the benchmark price is 2 901 €/m² for an apartment, based on DVF transactions registered before notaries. That average hides wide gaps depending on closeness to the water: a property with a view over the harbour or the bay does not compare with a dwelling in the hinterland. The small number of annual sales and the weight of second homes make the market sensitive to the nature of the properties traded.
The harbour town, along the quay and the ria of the Goyen, concentrates the fishermen's houses and the older apartments, much in demand for their position. The Esquibien area, joined in 2016, opens onto the bay of Audierne and its beaches, with more scattered housing. The heights and the hinterland offer more recent bungalows at price levels below those of the seafront. Each area answers a different use.
Yes, clearly. As in many municipalities of the Breton coast, a significant share of the dwellings in Audierne are second homes. That demand, driven by buyers often from outside the department, supports the prices of properties close to the sea and the harbour. It can also reduce the supply available to permanent residents. The market thus mixes local buyers and holiday buyers, with distinct expectations and budgets.
Audierne lies at the southern tip of the Finistère, some thirty kilometres from Quimper, the nearest prefecture town, reached by road. The railway, which arrived at the turn of the twentieth century, no longer carries passengers, so the car remains the main means of access. That relative distance from the main routes contributes to the preserved character of the municipality and weighs on the nature of its property demand.
Fishing, in particular for langoustine, remains an identity-defining activity in Audierne, even if the numbers bear no comparison with the golden age of the canneries. Tourism has taken over as the economic driver, carried by the harbour, the bay and the beaches, as well as by the closeness of the pointe du Raz. That twofold dimension, maritime and touristic, shapes the life of the municipality and its housing market.
This analysis is published by Immover, an independent observatory founded by Antony Barbier. Data sourced from official sources (DVF, INSEE, Notaries of France).