The average price per m² in Romans-sur-Isère is 1 714 €/m² for an apartment, based on actual notarised (DVF) sales. For a house or villa, it is 2 292 €/m². About 301 transactions are recorded each year.
Mood illustration of Romans-sur-Isère, between the collegiate church of Saint-Barnard and the banks of the Isère.
The average price recorded in Romans-sur-Isère stands at 1 714 €/m² for an apartment. That average covers a very contrasted stock. The old centre, around the collegiate church of Saint-Barnard and the quays of the Isère, lines up older blocks whose condition varies strongly from one dwelling to the next, while the housing blocks in the east of the town pull values downwards. Detached houses, for their part, come out at 2 292 €/m². These figures come from the DVF database, the French notarised sales database, which lists the transactions actually registered before notaries, and not the prices shown in listings.
House : 2 292 €/m²
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 1 593 €/m² in 2021, the average price in Romans-sur-Isère reaches 1 714 €/m² in 2026, roughly +8 % over the period.
The Romans market is still carried by a diversified employment base after the decline of shoemaking: food processing, logistics and services now hold a place that the leather industry once held alone. Romans-sur-Isère belongs to Valence Romans Agglo, which places it in an economic area of more than 200 000 inhabitants and brings it a steady flow of households coming to look for larger floor areas than in the prefecture town. That spillover demand is the first driver of the local market, more so than the population growth of the municipality itself, which remains measured.
The second factor is the structure of the stock itself. With 11,8 % of dwellings vacant according to INSEE, the municipality carries a large reserve of older properties to be brought back into condition, concentrated in the centre and in the suburbs. Purchases with works are frequent there and create a lasting gap between renovated buildings and the rest. Conversely, suburban houses with gardens find takers quickly. The links towards Grenoble by the A49 and towards Valence TGV also support part of the demand from households who work outside the municipality.
Romans-sur-Isère sits clearly below the levels found in Valence, its immediate neighbour, as in Montélimar or Grenoble. It is the gap with Valence, less than twenty kilometres away, that shapes the local market most.
Romans was born in 838, when Barnard, archbishop of Vienne, founded an abbey near a ford on the Isère. The monastic community governed the new town before being replaced, in the tenth century, by a chapter of canons. The town obtained municipal rights in 1138, then a first charter of liberties in 1160. In 1344, the dauphin set up a mint there which struck coin until 1493. In 1349, the treaty of Romans sealed the attachment of the Dauphiné to France: the ceremony was held at the collegiate church of Saint-Barnard, which remains today the main landmark of the old centre.
The water of the Isère and of the canals that cross the town drew tanners from the end of the fourteenth century, settled in the Presle district. Leather called for shoemaking, which became the economic engine of Romans and employed about 5 000 workers in 1914, against a background of powerful trade unionism. The peak came between 1945 and 1970, with luxury houses exported worldwide, Charles Jourdan, Stéphane Kelian or Robert Clergerie. International competition has since reduced local production. The collection gathered by Marie-Madeleine Bouvier, given to the town in 1962, has been housed since 1971 in the former Visitation convent.
The twentieth century stretched the town beyond its medieval core. The eastern districts, among them la Monnaie, were covered with housing blocks during the decades of industrial growth, when the shoe factories brought in workers. To the north, les Étournelles, la Gloriette, les Pierrottes and les Valettes form another string of suburbs. Romans - Bourg-de-Péage station, on the Valence-Grenoble line, and the A49 motorway towards Grenoble anchor the town in its regional axis. In 1999, the opening of Marques Avenue in a former gendarmerie barracks refurbished by the architect Jean-Michel Wilmotte redirected part of the retail trade towards the centre. Those three layers, the canonical town, the leather town and the twentieth-century extensions, explain the present shape of the municipality.
Romans-sur-Isère has 33 464 inhabitants. According to INSEE, the French national statistics institute, the housing stock is about 60,5 % apartments and 38,5 % detached houses, a share of flats unusual for a town of this size, inherited from its working-class past. Again according to INSEE, 86,7 % of dwellings are main residences, 1,5 % second homes and 11,8 % are vacant, a high vacancy rate that weighs on the old centre. Owner-occupiers account for about half of households. Buyers are therefore mainly residents of the Romans area and first-time buyers coming from the Valence conurbation, some twenty minutes away.
The average price of an apartment in Romans-sur-Isère is 1 714 €/m². It is calculated from the sales registered in the DVF database, fed by notarial deeds, on a volume of about 300 transactions a year. It is a municipal average: depending on the condition of the property, the floor level, the presence of outdoor space and the sector, the real gap between two comparable dwellings can be wide.
The historic centre, around the collegiate church of Saint-Barnard, the cobbled streets and the quays of the Isère, concentrates the older buildings and the shops. The northern suburbs, Étournelles, la Gloriette, les Pierrottes and les Valettes, mix houses and small blocks. To the east, la Monnaie and Jules Nadi bring together the large estates born of the industrial period. Saint-Nicolas is cited rather for its quiet residential character.
The two markets genuinely coexist, since the municipality counts close to 39 % detached houses according to INSEE. The average price recorded for a house is 2 292 €/m², against 1 714 €/m² for an apartment. Houses are found above all in the suburbs and on the outskirts, apartments in the old centre and in the housing blocks of the east. The choice therefore depends as much on the sector sought as on the type of property.
Romans - Bourg-de-Péage station lies on the Valence-Grenoble railway line and serves both hubs daily. The A49 motorway links the town to Grenoble, the A7 is reached via Valence, less than twenty kilometres away, and Valence TGV station puts Paris and Marseille within direct reach. That twofold accessibility, by rail and by motorway, explains part of the residential appeal of the municipality.
The centre concentrates medieval and early modern buildings often divided into small blocks of flats. Ask for the minutes of the owners' general meetings, the state of the common parts, whether there is a lift and the energy performance certificate, often unfavourable on those blocks. The vacancy rate, at 11,8 % in the municipality according to INSEE, also invites you to look at how liquid the sector really is before committing.
This analysis is published by Immover, an independent observatory founded by Antony Barbier. Data sourced from official sources (DVF, INSEE, Notaries of France).