The average price per m² in La Crau is 3 668 €/m² for an apartment, based on actual notarised (DVF) sales. About 51 transactions are recorded each year.
Atmospheric illustration of La Crau, in the Var plain, between Toulon and Hyères.
The average apartment price in La Crau stands at 3 668 €/m², based on DVF transactions actually registered with notaries (DVF is the French record of notarised property sales). This average covers a stock made up mainly of houses and small recent blocks, spread across the old centre, the residential estates that accompanied the municipality's strong growth, and the farming hamlets of the plain. Floor area, condition, closeness to the centre and to the routes towards Toulon or Hyères make the value of a property vary. La Crau remains a residential municipality of the Var plain, backing onto the hills and turned towards the Toulon urban 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 La Crau market is pulled by the municipality's continuous population growth and by its position in the Toulon area. Linked to Toulon and Hyères by the main routes, the town attracts households looking for a house with outdoor space at a price below that of the immediate coast. That sustained demand, combined with land increasingly constrained by the protection of the agricultural and natural areas of the plain, keeps steady pressure on house prices, the dominant segment of the municipal stock.
Several factors nevertheless frame that momentum. New building remains limited by the preservation of the farming plain, which restricts new supply and concentrates transactions on the existing stock. Price levels stay more affordable than in the neighbouring seaside municipalities such as Carqueiranne or Le Pradet, which keeps La Crau in a spillover role for buyers away from the seafront. The pace of sales, around fifty apartments a year in the DVF data, reflects an active but modestly sized market.
La Crau sits at an intermediate level in the eastern Toulon area: more affordable than the seaside municipalities such as Carqueiranne, but above the centre of Toulon. Hyères, its coastal and historic neighbour, shows higher values.
La Crau was long a simple hamlet of Hyères, known as La Crau d'Hyères. Its farming population lived on the cultivated plain that stretches at the foot of the hills, between the heights of Hyères to the south and the limestone slopes to the north. After decades of petitions, the hamlet gained its autonomy and became a full municipality in 1853. That separation confirmed an already distinct identity, based on the farming of the plain and on scattered farmhouses and country houses. From that period the municipality keeps a compact old centre, around which the town later grew.
The history of La Crau is inseparable from the Jean Natte canal, also called the La Crau canal. Dug in the fifteenth century, under the reign of Louis XI and on an initiative attributed to King René, this structure of about nine and a half kilometres brought the water the plain needed. It powered the flour mills, irrigated the crops and gardens, watered the herds and served the village's domestic needs. In 1866 the canal and the mills were bought jointly by the municipalities of La Crau and Hyères. That control of water made possible the agricultural development of the plain and the survival of market gardening and winegrowing.
La Crau has seen rapid population growth over recent decades. The municipality had about 5 300 inhabitants in 1968, nearly 14 500 in 1999, and its population has continued to rise since. That expansion translated into the opening of residential estates and the arrival of households working in the Toulon urban area, to which La Crau is linked by the main roads. The plain, long devoted to the vine, market gardening and horticulture, has seen part of its land taken over by housing. The municipality now covers nearly thirty-eight square kilometres, between Toulon and Hyères.
La Crau has 19 556 inhabitants. According to INSEE, the French national statistics office, the municipality's population has grown by nearly a quarter since the mid-2000s, a brisk pace driven by the arrival of families. The housing stock is overwhelmingly made up of detached houses, and main residences clearly dominate: La Crau is not a holiday municipality but a residential town lived in year-round. Also according to INSEE, owner-occupiers form the largest share of households. Buyers are mainly families and working people employed in Toulon, in Hyères or in the neighbouring business zones, looking for a house with outdoor space within reasonable distance of the coast.
The average apartment price in La Crau is 3 668 €/m², based on DVF transactions actually completed before notaries. That average hides gaps depending on location, the condition of the property, its floor area and the presence of outdoor space. Since the municipal stock consists mainly of houses, values also vary sharply between the centre, the recent estates and the hamlets of the plain.
La Crau is organised around its old centre, compact and full of shops, then the residential estates that spread towards the outskirts as the municipality grew. The farming plain, devoted to the vine and market gardening, keeps a more scattered pattern of farmhouses and country houses. The hamlet of La Moutonne, shared with Hyères, forms a separate residential area to the south.
La Crau is linked to Toulon, some fifteen kilometres away, by the departmental road and by the motorway that serves Hyères. The bus network of the Toulon Provence Méditerranée metropolitan area connects the municipality to the centre of Toulon and to its interchange. Toulon-Hyères airport and the metropolitan stations are a short distance away, which places La Crau directly within the sphere of the urban area.
The La Crau market is first of all a house market: the municipal stock is overwhelmingly made up of detached houses, and most demand is for houses with a garden. Apartments, more recent, are concentrated in the centre and in small blocks. The reference price of 3 668 €/m² relates to apartments; houses trade according to the size of the plot, the aspect and closeness to the centre.
Farming is still present in La Crau, where the plain irrigated by the Jean Natte canal still hosts vines, market gardening and horticulture. Part of the land has nevertheless been taken over by housing as the municipality grew. That dual role, agricultural and residential, marks the landscape: estates and business zones sit alongside farms. Property projects have to work with the rules protecting agricultural and natural land, which can be checked with the town hall.
This analysis is published by Immover, an independent observatory founded by Antony Barbier. Data sourced from official sources (DVF, INSEE, Notaries of France).