The average price per m² in Laon is 1 149 €/m² for an apartment, within a range of 0,9 to 1,3 k€ per m², based on actual notarised (DVF) sales. Over the period, the market rose 5 % over 5 years and rose 2,4 % over the last 12 months, with about 91 transactions per year.
Illustration of Laon, the medieval upper town set on its hill, above the plain of the Aisne.
Apartments in Laon sell at an average price of around 1 149 €/m², based on transactions actually recorded (DVF data, the French database of sales actually registered before notaries). It is one of the most affordable markets we cover. Prices run from around 755 €/m² at Champagne to 1 216 €/m² in the upper town, a gap of 61 %, the widest in our recent surveys: here the address really counts. Houses, at 1 302 €/m², trade 13 % above apartments. With 91 apartment sales a year, the volume is solid for a municipality of 24 000 inhabitants.
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.
After 1 094 €/m² in 2021, the average price in Laon reaches 1 149 €/m² in 2026, roughly +5 % over the period.
Change in the average price per m² over twelve months, district by district, based on the most recent DVF sales.
The average price per m² for an apartment in each district of Laon covered by Immover, ranked from the most expensive to the most affordable.
The Laon market is rising slowly and steadily. The average apartment price went from 1 094 €/m² in 2021 to 1 149 in 2026, a rise of 5 % over the period, with an increase of 2,4 % over the last twelve months. With 91 apartment sales a year and 181 transactions retained over 2024 and 2025, the volume makes these figures solid. The striking point is that this rise happens in a municipality losing 0,4 % of its inhabitants a year: demand is not pushing, it is the stock that is sorting itself.
Two features set this market apart. The first is its spread: 61 % separates Champagne from the upper town, where a comparable municipality sits closer to 35 %. Topography and history explain it, between a heritage plateau and a post-war housing estate designated a priority urban policy neighbourhood since 1983. The second is vacancy, 11,2 % of the stock, more than one thousand seven hundred empty homes. It is the mark of a market where renovated and unrenovated property no longer change hands at the same pace. For a seller, it means that energy renovation is worth more here than elsewhere. For a buyer, that the cost of works has to enter the calculation from the first viewing.
Laon compared with the major French cities, on the average price per m² of an apartment.
Laon is a town built on an accident of geology. An outlier hill of limestone and sand, isolated in the middle of the plain of the Aisne, rising to about one hundred and eighty metres, with slopes steep enough to withstand a siege. Everything else follows from it: the fortified upper town, its three kilometres of ramparts, and a lower town that came only afterwards, once the protection of the site had ceased to be the main argument.
The Notre-Dame cathedral is its founding monument. Construction began around 1150 and continued until 1235: it is one of the very first great Gothic buildings in France, at the turning point between early and classical Gothic. Seven towers were planned, five were built, two of them fifty-two metres high on the west front, decorated with sixteen stone oxen. Legend has it that a miraculous ox came to help haul the materials up the climb to the plateau; historians note that the story appeared after the towers were completed. The building has been protected since 1840, on the first list of historic monuments.
The upper town was long difficult to reach, and the town tried to answer that. From 1989 to August 2016, an automated metro, the Poma 2000, linked the station to the plateau. It was closed on cost grounds and replaced the very next day by a shuttle bus, which runs every twenty minutes on weekdays. This needs stating because many descriptions of Laon still mention it in the present tense: the Poma no longer runs.
Laon today is an administrative town in a department that is losing population. Prefecture of the Aisne, it is nonetheless only its third town, behind Saint-Quentin and its 52 813 inhabitants and Soissons and its 28 046. Public administration, education and health account for 51,5 % of local employment, and the employment concentration index of 206,0 means two jobs for every resident in work. The municipality lost six hundred and fifty inhabitants between 2017 and 2023. The property market carries the mark of all this: prices among the lowest in France, a vacancy rate of 11,2 %, and a considerable gap between districts.
Laon can be bought at a price that hardly exists anywhere else: 1 149 €/m² for an apartment, a quarter of the national average. The buyer profile is twofold. There are the people of Laon themselves, often working in public administration, education or the hospital, who become owners for the equivalent of a rent. And there are buyers from further afield, drawn by the upper town, its heritage and prices that allow a home with character to be bought for the price of a studio in a big city. Three points to know before buying. The first is that the gap between districts is the widest we measure, 61 % between Champagne and the upper town: here, unlike in other municipalities, the address makes the price. The second is energy performance. On an older stock and at this price level, the cost of a renovation represents a considerable share of the value of the property, and it is the first calculation to make before buying. The third is vacancy, 11,2 % of the stock, in a municipality that is losing inhabitants: reselling takes patience, and the choice of district weighs more on liquidity than on the advertised price.
The average price in Laon is 1 149 €/m² for an apartment (actual DVF transactions, notarised sales), within a range of 949 to 1 333 €/m² depending on the district. Listing portals show asking prices, 10 to 20 % above the prices actually recorded at signing.
The upper town, at 1 216 €/m², 6 % above the municipal average and 61 % above Champagne. It is also by far the most active district in the municipality, with forty apartment sales a year, 42 % of the Laon market on its own. The concentration of older stock in apartment buildings on the plateau explains this double position.
No. This automated metro linked the station to the upper town from 1989; it was closed for good in August 2016 on cost grounds. A shuttle bus has replaced it since the day after it closed, running every twenty minutes on weekdays. Many descriptions of the town still mention it in the present tense, which is a common error.
The municipality lost about six hundred and fifty inhabitants between 2017 and 2023, and yet the average apartment price went from 1 094 €/m² in 2021 to 1 149 in 2026, a rise of 5 %. There is no contradiction. At this price level, the cost of an energy renovation weighs very heavily against the value of the property, and the gap widens between renovated homes, which are rising, and the rest, which feeds a vacancy rate of 11,2 %. The average rises, the stock splits in two.
It is in fact the most liquid market in the municipality, with forty apartment sales a year. The building stock is old and the area is a protected heritage area, which frames work on facades and joinery: check with the planning department before any project. Two practical constraints to know: parking is difficult on the plateau, and the climb from the lower town takes some getting used to in winter.
Houses sell at 1 302 €/m² against 1 149 for apartments, 13 % more, which is the usual ratio. The municipal stock is 58,2 % apartments, so the supply of flats dominates by far, particularly in the upper town. Beware of the calculation convention: the price per square metre of a house covers the built area, while the value paid includes the land.
Start with the district, which is not our usual advice but is unavoidable here: 61 % separates the most expensive area from the most affordable, a far wider gap than elsewhere. Then look at energy performance, whose relative weight is considerable on a market at 1 149 €/m². Finally, if the property is on the plateau, check the heritage constraints that apply to building work. The Immover estimator draws on the sales actually recorded closest to your address.
This analysis is published by Immover, an independent observatory founded by Antony Barbier. Data sourced from official sources (DVF, INSEE, Notaries of France).