The average price per m² in Dinan is 2 763 €/m² for an apartment, based on actual notarised (DVF) sales. About 149 transactions are recorded each year.
Ambience illustration of Dinan, a medieval town in the Côtes-d'Armor above the Rance.
The average price recorded in Dinan stands at 2 763 €/m². That average covers a stock split between 58,6 % apartments and 40,4 % houses according to INSEE, the French national statistics institute, from the small blocks of flats in the faubourgs to the town houses and older dwellings of the walled centre. The protected historic sector, with its half-timbered houses and its immediate closeness to the ramparts, does not sell at the same level as the more recent outlying districts or the lower town, near the harbour on the Rance. The gaps owe above all to location, to the condition of the building and to heritage constraints. These figures come from the DVF database, which records sales actually registered before notaries.
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 Dinan market rests first on year-round residential demand. A sub-prefecture town and a hub of jobs, shops and services for its agglomeration, the town captures households looking to settle for the long term, in an area where the share of tenants is high. Closeness to Saint-Malo, some twenty kilometres away, and to Rennes, less than an hour away, widens that demand to people working on the coast or in the metropolitan area. With about 149 transactions a year, activity remains steady without being tight.
The heritage appeal adds a second dynamic. A Ville d'art et d'histoire among the most visited medieval towns in Brittany, Dinan sustains demand for second homes and pieds-à-terre, above all in the old centre and towards the harbour. That part of the town offers a scarce and constrained supply: the protected sector limits alterations and the building stock there is often old, which also explains a vacancy close to 8 % of the stock. Conversely, the faubourgs and the low-rise housing districts offer more standard and more affordable properties, where a good share of sales is concentrated.
An inland heritage town, Dinan sits well below the coastal centres and the regional metropolitan capital. It remains dearer than Saint-Brieuc, but far from the levels of Saint-Malo, lifted by the seafront, and below that of Rennes.
The name Dinan comes from the Breton din, itself from the Gaulish dun, which denotes a fortress. A small town formed around a Benedictine priory towards the 11th century, on a rocky spur overlooking the Rance from about seventy-five metres. In 1283, the duke of Brittany Jean le Roux acquired half of the town and began building the fortified wall. The rampart walk, about 2 600 metres long and still largely intact today, is pierced by several gates, among them the porte du Jerzual and the porte Saint-Malo; the porte Saint-Louis was opened only in 1620. The castle, with its keep from the end of the 14th century, closes the defences to the south.
The town remains attached to the figure of Bertrand du Guesclin, the future constable of France under Charles V. In 1357, during the war of the Breton Succession, he defended a besieged Dinan and won a single combat against the English knight Thomas of Canterbury. His heart rests in the basilique Saint-Sauveur. The old economy of the town rested on textiles: the weavers produced linen cloth exported to Saint-Malo, in particular for ships' sails. The rue du Jerzual, steep and lined with half-timbered houses, links the upper town to the harbour set on the bank of the Rance, long a mainstay of river and sea trade.
The 19th century transformed the way the town was served. The Dinan viaduct, opened in 1852, spans the Rance valley and redrew traffic patterns, before the railway arrived in 1879. Spared by wartime destruction, Dinan has kept a dense old centre, with its half-timbered houses, its tour de l'Horloge and a large number of protected monuments. That heritage earns it the Ville d'art et d'histoire label and makes it one of the most visited medieval towns in Brittany, some twenty kilometres from Saint-Malo and from the coast.
According to INSEE, Dinan has 14 764 inhabitants for 9 402 dwellings, of which 84,8 % are main residences, 7,4 % second homes and 7,9 % vacant dwellings, a vacancy linked to the age of the town-centre building stock. The stock is split between 58,6 % apartments and 40,4 % houses. Among households in main residences, 48,7 % are owners and 49,7 % tenants, with a large share of social housing. A sub-prefecture town of the Côtes-d'Armor and a service hub for Dinan Agglomération, the town draws above all buyers who settle there year-round: first-time buyers, families, working people and retired people. Alongside them, a more occasional demand for second homes rests on the heritage appeal and on closeness to the coast.
The average price recorded is 2 763 €/m², calculated from sales registered before notaries and published in the DVF database. It is a municipal average, mixing the faubourg apartment and the town house of the old centre. The position within the municipality, the condition of the building, the aspect and above all the heritage constraints of the protected sector explain most of the gaps. For a reliable valuation, it is better to rely on comparable sales than on the average alone.
The town reads on two levels. Above, the historic centre inside the walls concentrates the half-timbered houses, the paved streets and the shops, within the ramparts and the protected sector. Below, the rue du Jerzual runs down to the harbour, on the bank of the Rance, a district valued for its setting. Around them, the faubourgs and the more recent districts offer low-rise detached housing and blocks of flats, at price levels distinct from those of the old core.
Dinan has a station, opened in 1879, linked to Dol-de-Bretagne and to the regional network, along with a coach network. The municipality lies some twenty kilometres from Saint-Malo and from the coast, and less than an hour from Rennes by road, the Breton metropolitan capital being about 46 kilometres away. The viaduct, opened in 1852, crosses the Rance valley and still shapes traffic towards the Lanvallay bank.
The stock leans slightly towards flats: according to INSEE, apartments account for 58,6 % of dwellings and houses 40,4 %. The houses are split between the older stock of the centre, often constrained by heritage rules, and the more recent low-rise districts on the outskirts. With about 149 transactions a year across all property types, the market remains modest in size, which makes a valuation based on recent, comparable sales all the more useful.
The old centre of Dinan is a protected heritage area and holds many listed monuments. Works visible from the public street, facades, joinery, roofs or signs, are subject to the opinion of the architecte des Bâtiments de France, the state heritage architect, which frames materials and the appearance of buildings. Letting a furnished tourist rental also requires a declaration at the town hall, and the tax treatment of second homes is worth anticipating before buying.
This analysis is published by Immover, an independent observatory founded by Antony Barbier. Data sourced from official sources (DVF, INSEE, Notaries of France).