The average price per m² in Dinard is 5 839 €/m² for an apartment, based on actual notarised (DVF) sales. About 174 transactions are recorded each year.
Ambience illustration of Dinard, a seaside resort on the côte d'Émeraude, facing Saint-Malo in the Ille-et-Vilaine.
The average price recorded in Dinard stands at 5 839 €/m². That average covers a stock unusual for a seaside commune: apartments weigh 51,0 % of dwellings and houses 48,6 % according to INSEE, the French national statistics institute, a near balance that mixes large apartments fitted into former villas, developments of the 1960s to 1980s along the beaches, and the Belle Époque residences of the centre and the hillsides. The scarcity of coastal land, the sea view, the aspect and heritage listing open wide gaps from one property to another. The figure comes from the DVF database, which lists 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 market in Dinard owes to its role as a smart seaside resort on the côte d'Émeraude. The commune captures second-home demand that reaches well beyond its own employment area: buyers from Paris, Rennes and Britain compete for a constrained stock, which keeps prices high while the population settles at around 10 800 inhabitants. With 44,3 % second homes according to INSEE, most transactions involve homes that will not be lived in all year round, and the sea view remains the first criterion of value.
New supply is structurally limited. The Coastal Act and the heritage protection zone contain sprawl and lock down the older buildings, so that activity is concentrated on the resale and renovation of existing villas and apartments, whose energy performance now weighs in negotiations. The immediate closeness of Saint-Malo, the airport and the road link to Rennes anchor Dinard in a four-season tourist area, which supports demand without creating any land reserve that might push prices down.
A smart seaside resort facing Saint-Malo, Dinard sits above its immediate neighbours on the côte d'Émeraude and clearly above the regional capital. The gap owes to the scarcity of coastal land and to the weight of holiday housing.
Dinard was long only a fishing hamlet attached to the parish of Saint-Énogat, on the left bank of the Rance estuary, facing Saint-Malo. The name, recorded in the form Dinart as early as the end of the 12th century, comes from the Breton din, the fortified height. The turning point came in the middle of the 19th century: around 1854, the American William Faber had one of the first villas built there, and his widow drew an English-speaking clientele from Dinan. The building of bathing facilities on the Écluse beach, in 1858, marks the true birth of the resort.
In the 1880s, Dinard was described as the leading seaside resort in France, nicknamed the pearl of the côte d'Émeraude. The European aristocracy and middle classes came to bathe in the sea and to give fashionable concerts and dinners. Architects built more than four hundred villas in an eclectic style, of mixed references, which still make up the silhouette of the seafront and the hillsides. This heritage is protected by a zone for the protection of architectural, urban and landscape heritage created in 1984, and the town holds the Ville d'art et d'histoire label.
The link with the British world remains a hallmark: the commune hosts each year a British film festival launched in 1990, a direct legacy of its first English summer visitors. On the technical side, the Rance tidal power station, brought into service in 1966, now links Dinard and Saint-Malo by a barrage carrying the road. The resort has counted among its guests figures such as Winston Churchill and Agatha Christie, which still feeds its image as a smart holiday place on the north Breton coast.
According to INSEE, Dinard has 10 772 inhabitants for 12 324 dwellings, of which only 6 305 are main residences, 51,2 % of the stock: second and occasional homes account for 44,3 %. The stock is split almost evenly between apartments (51,0 %) and houses (48,6 %). Among households in main residences, 56,1 % are owners and 40,6 % tenants. Two kinds of buyer therefore meet on this market. On one side, second-home buyers, often from Paris, Rennes or Britain, looking for a pied-à-terre with a sea view or an apartment in a period villa. On the other, households settled all year round, working, retired or families, looking for a house or a large apartment in the residential districts away from the seafront.
The average price recorded is 5 839 €/m², calculated from sales registered before notaries and published in the DVF database. It is a town-wide average, mixing the 1970s apartment in the second row and the high-end apartment fitted into a villa with a sea view. Closeness to the beaches, the aspect, the view and heritage listing explain most of the gaps. A serious valuation is set on comparable sales in the same sector, not on the commune's average alone.
The seafront, around the Écluse and Prieuré beaches, concentrates the Belle Époque villas and the apartments with a view, the most sought after. The Saint-Énogat district, the original parish to the west, keeps more of a village character around its beach. Behind, the hillsides and the residential streets offer detached housing and more affordable houses, without the sea view. Port-Blanc, on the western side, closes the commune on a more family-friendly beach. These location logics do not sell at the same level.
Dinard combines several factors of scarcity: a fully built seafront, coastal land almost impossible to extend, a listed heritage of villas that limits demolition and adding storeys, and second-home demand that is national and even international. With 44,3 % second homes according to INSEE, a large share of transactions involves holiday homes, which partly disconnects the market from local incomes and supports values, above all for properties with a sea view.
Dinard faces Saint-Malo, on the other side of the Rance estuary. The two towns are linked by the barrage of the tidal power station, brought into service in 1966, over a few kilometres of road, and by a boat shuttle in season. Rennes is reached in about an hour by road. The commune also has an airport, Dinard-Bretagne, which long ran links to the United Kingdom, in keeping with the English history of the resort.
A large part of the commune comes under a heritage protection zone, created in 1984, which frames the external appearance of buildings, rendering and extensions, in particular for the Belle Époque villas. The Coastal Act also limits building in the areas close to the shore. On use, letting a furnished tourist rental involves formalities at the town hall, and the tax treatment of second homes, very present here, 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).