The average price per m² in Doubs is 3 020 €/m² for an apartment, based on actual notarised (DVF) sales. About 24 transactions are recorded each year.
Doubs, between plateau and river, a short distance from Pontarlier and the Swiss border.
In Doubs, the average price of an apartment stands at 3 020 €/m². This average covers mainly recent or renovated apartments, in a village where the built stock is still dominated by the detached house. Demand comes largely from cross-border workers who travel each day to neighbouring Switzerland, to Neuchâtel, Le Locle or La Chaux-de-Fonds, and whose purchasing power weighs on local prices. The immediate closeness of Pontarlier, barely two kilometres away, makes the village a sought-after residential alternative for anyone who wants to move away from the town centre without moving away from its shops and services. The value of a property varies above all with its exposure on the plateau, the view over the Doubs valley and the distance to the village centre. With around 24 transactions a year, the market remains narrow, which widens the price gaps from one sale to the next.
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 closeness of Switzerland remains the main driver of the market in Doubs: the salaries paid across the border, in Neuchâtel or Le Locle, give cross-border workers a purchasing capacity above the local average, which pulls prices upwards across the whole of the Haut-Doubs.
The brake lies in volume: with a limited number of transactions each year, the Doubs market can show sharper swings from one sale to the next than a town such as Pontarlier, where supply is broader and more regular.
The price per m² in Doubs sits above that of Pontarlier and Morteau, two municipalities of the Haut-Doubs that are geographically close. It remains below Métabief, a resort where demand for second homes pulls prices upwards.
The first written mentions of the village go back to the Middle Ages, in the forms Dubio in 1128 and then Dou in 1275. The development of Doubs owes much to its position close to Pontarlier, a crossroads of trade towards Switzerland, and to the Cluse de Joux, around a dozen kilometres away, which has offered since antiquity the main passage across the Jura massif.
Like the whole of the Haut-Doubs, the village suffered greatly from the French invasions during the Ten Years' War: its population fell from 64 hearths in 1614 to only 37 after the end of the conflict in 1688. It was also a starting point of the local Resistance: on 4 September 1944, resistance fighters set out from Doubs to liberate Pontarlier.
In 1987, the construction of a housing estate brought to light the Merovingian necropolis of la Grande Oye, with around 600 graves recorded, a witness to how long this plateau beside the river Doubs has been occupied.
Doubs has 3 335 inhabitants. The village attracts first of all cross-border workers who cross into Switzerland each day to reach their job, around Neuchâtel or Le Locle, and who gain a more rural setting than Pontarlier for an equivalent journey time. Families looking for space, with a garden or a plot of land, form another significant share of buyers, the detached house remaining the most sought-after property. Main homes dominate the market by a wide margin, second homes staying marginal in this type of plateau municipality. Buyers come both from Pontarlier itself, looking to settle just outside the centre, and from the other side of the Swiss border.
The average price of an apartment in Doubs stands at 3 020 €/m². That figure varies with the condition of the property, its position on the plateau and its closeness to the village centre.
Doubs lies around two kilometres from Pontarlier, which has a station serving Besançon as well as Switzerland via the ligne des Horlogers towards Frasne and Vallorbe. The road linking Besançon to the Swiss border passes in the immediate vicinity of the village.
The closeness of Switzerland is the main driver of the market: many residents work on the other side of the border, in Neuchâtel, Le Locle or La Chaux-de-Fonds, with Swiss salaries that sustain local demand. The rural setting of the plateau, a short distance from Pontarlier, completes this appeal.
The built stock is dominated by the detached house, often with a garden or a plot of land, typical of the villages of the Haut-Doubs plateau. Apartments are found mainly in the village centre, in small blocks or in converted former farms.
The village lies in a moderate seismic zone and on a high plateau, with a harsher climate than in the lowlands, to be taken into account for insulation and heating. The number of sales remains limited each year, which calls for comparing several properties before settling on a price.
This analysis is published by Immover, an independent observatory founded by Antony Barbier. Data sourced from official sources (DVF, INSEE, Notaries of France).