The average price per m² in Montlignon is 3 297 €/m² for an apartment, based on actual notarised (DVF) sales. About 13 transactions are recorded each year.
Mood illustration of Montlignon, on the hillside of the Montmorency valley, at the foot of the state forest.
The average price recorded in Montlignon stands at 3 297 €/m². That average covers a stock that is overwhelmingly made up of detached houses: according to INSEE, the French national statistics institute, a little more than 70 % of the municipality's dwellings are detached houses, often large, and close to seven in ten have four rooms or more. The market is narrow, with of the order of thirteen to sixteen sales a year, so that a single atypical transaction can move the average from one year to the next. The gap is real between a hillside house with a garden on the edge of the forest and an apartment in a small block in the lower part of the municipality, closer to the valley. The figures come from the DVF database, which records the transactions 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 Montlignon market depends first of all on demand from families for houses in a wooded setting within reasonable reach of Paris. The scarcity of supply, typical of a small municipality where owners stay for a long time, supports the prices of the fine hillside properties. The edge of the state forest of Montmorency and the low density remain the main drivers of demand, ahead of the closeness of the hubs of the valley such as Montmorency, Eaubonne or Saint-Prix.
Two factors will weigh on the coming years. On one side, the low volume of transactions makes the municipal average sensitive to exceptional sales and calls for reasoning by comparison of properties rather than on a single figure. On the other, the energy renovation of the suburban stock, part of which goes back to the 1970s and 1980s, is becoming a bargaining criterion: the energy performance rating and the cost of the works come more and more into the discussion on the price of older houses.
A wooded hillside municipality, more residential than the towns of the valley floor, Montlignon compares above all with its immediate neighbours. Saint-Prix, also backing onto the forest, sits above, while Montmorency and Eaubonne, more urban and better served, frame the local market.
Montlignon occupies the northern hillside of the Montmorency valley, in the Val-d'Oise, backing onto the state forest of Montmorency and open to the south over the more built-up plain. Its name is said to come from the Latin Molignum, the small mill, in reference to the watermills that once turned on the hillside. Long a farming and wine-growing village turned towards the forest, the municipality has kept a fabric of old houses and hillside properties, to which the 20th century added a suburban development that today gives the municipality its residential character.
The heritage bears witness to that history on the edge of the forest. The château Larive, a late 18th century pavilion built in exposed rubble stone, owes its name to the actor Larive, several times mayor of the municipality. The fort de Montlignon, raised in 1874 astride Montlignon and Andilly, was part of the defensive ring of the valley and of the road from Eaubonne to Domont; it today houses a shooting range of the national police. In the heart of the massif, on the edge of Saint-Prix, Bouffémont and Domont, the château de la Chasse and its pond recall the former hunting lodge of the lords of Montmorency. The municipality also keeps several religious institutions set on the hillside.
According to INSEE, the French national statistics institute, Montlignon has around 3 000 inhabitants for close to 1 000 dwellings, of which more than 93 % are main residences and the share of second homes is all but nil: this is a municipality of permanent residents. Detached houses account for a little more than 70 % of the stock, against less than 30 % apartments, and three households in four own their home. That profile turns the market towards families who buy in order to settle for the long term, drawn by the wooded setting, the closeness of the state forest and the links of the Montmorency valley towards Paris. Buyers are most often looking for a house with a garden; the supply of apartments, which is rarer, is concentrated in the lower part of the municipality and in a few small blocks.
The average price recorded is 3 297 €/m², calculated from the transactions registered by notaries and published in the DVF database. It is a municipal average on a low-volume market, of the order of thirteen to sixteen sales a year: a single atypical property can move it appreciably from one year to the next. A hillside house with a garden on the edge of the forest and an apartment in a small block in the lower part of the municipality do not sit at the same level. The condition of the property, the size of the plot and the aspect explain a good part of the gaps.
Montlignon is a small municipality of fewer than 3 000 inhabitants and a thousand or so dwellings, overwhelmingly made up of detached houses and occupied by owners. Properties change hands little: families settle there for a long time, which limits the number of sales each year. That scarcity cuts both ways: it supports the prices of the fine houses, but it reduces the number of points of comparison and sometimes lengthens the time needed to search as well as to sell.
Supply is tilted in favour of houses. According to INSEE, they make up a little more than 70 % of the municipality's dwellings, often large and with a plot of land, against less than 30 % apartments. Anyone aiming for a house has a wider choice but on a tight market, where quality properties go quickly. The apartment remains a minority option, concentrated in the lower part of the municipality and in small blocks, with fewer price references.
Its position on a wooded hillside, at the foot of the state forest of Montmorency, makes it a greener and more residential municipality than the neighbouring towns on the valley floor. The setting, the low density and the immediate closeness of the forest massif are the first arguments sought by buyers. In return, the municipality is small, supply is limited and transport links are less dense than in the towns lower down the valley, a point to check against your travel needs.
On such a narrow market, a municipal average is not enough to set a price. You have to start from recent sales of comparable properties, take account of the size of the plot, the aspect, the condition and the closeness of the forest, then adjust to the reality of the property. Our online valuation tool cross-checks local transaction data with the characteristics you enter to give a starting figure, to be refined afterwards with a visit.
This analysis is published by Immover, an independent observatory founded by Antony Barbier. Data sourced from official sources (DVF, INSEE, Notaries of France).