The average price per m² in Saint-Hilaire-de-Riez is 3 182 €/m² for an apartment, based on actual notarised (DVF) sales. About 252 transactions are recorded each year.
Atmospheric illustration of Saint-Hilaire-de-Riez, between the Vendée corniche, pine woods and the Breton marsh.
The average price recorded in Saint-Hilaire-de-Riez stands at 3 182 €/m². That average covers a stock dominated by detached houses, 64 % of the total according to INSEE, the French national statistics office, shaped by decades of holiday-home building between the pine woods, the dunes and the marsh. A town house, an apartment in Sion-sur-l'Océan and a bungalow in the hamlets of Orouet or Les Mattes do not sit at the same level, and the gap between the coastal strip and the marshy hinterland remains clear. These values come from the DVF database, the French record of sales actually registered by notaries, not from advertised asking prices.
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.
Demographics support the market. The municipality has gained nearly 17 % more inhabitants since 2017 to reach 13 074 residents according to INSEE, a rise driven by net migration rather than by births. Many of these newcomers already knew the municipality as a holiday place and settle there on retirement: people over 65 make up 42,7 % of the population. That movement gradually turns holiday dwellings into main residences. With 2,5 % vacant dwellings, the stock struggles to absorb this extra demand and trade-offs play out on a supply that turns over slowly.
Tourism is the other driver. With capacity to host around 80 000 people in season, the highest in the department, Saint-Hilaire-de-Riez lives part of the year to the rhythm of campsites, holiday residences and furnished lettings, along thirteen kilometres of coast, largely sandy beaches. That economy sustains buying demand oriented towards seasonal use and supports the value of properties close to the shore. In the other direction, the loi Littoral, the marsh wetlands and the listed sites cap buildable land, which pushes demand back onto the existing stock.
On the Atlantic front running from the Vendée to the pays de Retz, Saint-Hilaire-de-Riez holds an intermediate position: price levels remain below those of the most sought-after resorts on this coast, while staying above those of the inland towns.
The name Riez refers to a former island, cut off from the mainland by the waters of the Breton marsh before silting joined it to firm ground. The parish, seat of a barony, enters national history on 16 April 1622: Louis XIII, then twenty-one years old, defeated there the Protestant troops of Benjamin de Rohan, lord of Soubise, entrenched on the island of Rié between the parishes of Riez and Saint-Hilaire and the port of Croix-de-Vie. The episode is often presented as the epilogue of the Wars of Religion in the region, six years before the siege of La Rochelle. During the Revolution, the municipality was for a time renamed La Révolution.
The marsh and the coast governed local life throughout the nineteenth century: salt, fishing, market gardening on the sandy soils. The traditional dwelling of the Breton marsh of the Vendée keeps a trace of it in the bourrine of Bois Juquaud, built in 1818, a group of earthen buildings roofed with reeds. Its last occupant, Armandine Gandemer, left the place in 1967; on her death in 1970 the municipality became owner of the site and began its restoration in the 1980s. The ensemble has held the Musée de France label since 28 July 2004. Military history passed through the municipality again in June 1815, when the royalist general Louis de La Rochejaquelein was killed in the fighting at Les Mattes.
The seaside resort was born at the end of the nineteenth century. The arrival of the railway at Croix-de-Vie in 1881, then the building of a metalled track linking the station to Sion in 1898 and 1899, opened the shore to the first summer visitors. A few chalets rose at the head of the Pineau cove, near the fishing village of Sion, and the Grand Hôtel des Pins et de l'Océan was built in 1903 at the initiative of the Parisian hotelier Eugène Guiltat. The coast road was extended to Sion after the First World War and the Vendée corniche was listed as a natural site as early as 1926. Campsites and holiday housing estates took over after 1950 and gave the municipality its present shape, a string of villages between pine woods, dunes and marsh.
Saint-Hilaire-de-Riez has 13 074 inhabitants according to INSEE, after a rise of nearly 17 % since 2017 due almost entirely to newcomers. The local market is above all a second-home market: of the 18 594 dwellings in the municipality, 60,7 % are second or occasional homes, against 36,8 % main residences and 2,5 % vacant dwellings. The stock remains dominated by houses, 64 % of the total, with apartments at 33,6 %. Among the households living there year-round, 72,8 % own their home, again according to INSEE. Buyers split between new permanent residents, often retired, and purchasers of a holiday home.
The average price comes out at 3 182 €/m² across the municipality, all property types combined. That figure is calculated from the DVF database, which records sales actually registered by notaries. It covers very different situations: a single-storey house in a marsh hamlet, an apartment in Sion-sur-l'Océan and a villa close to the beaches are not valued in the same way. For a specific property, the distance to the ocean, the size of the plot and the condition of the building weigh more than the municipal average.
The municipality has no single centre but a string of villages spread over 4 883 hectares. Sion-sur-l'Océan, a former fishing quarter backing onto the Vendée corniche, and the immediate surroundings of beaches such as La Pège concentrate holiday demand. The town centre, inland, keeps year-round life with its shops and schools. Orouet, Les Mattes and the hamlets of the Breton marsh offer more scattered housing, often a house on a large plot, at prices generally below those of the seafront.
The nearest station is that of Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie, terminus of the line from Nantes, a few kilometres south of the municipal territory. Road access is by the coast road linking Saint-Jean-de-Monts to Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie, with La Roche-sur-Yon about 44 kilometres away and Nantes a little over 60 kilometres. The regional Aléop coach network completes the service. That dependence on the road explains the congestion of the main routes in summer and weighs on the choice of area.
The two markets do not carry the same weight. Houses account for 64 % of the municipal stock according to INSEE, with a wide supply of holiday bungalows and single-storey houses on a plot, many built between the 1960s and the 1990s. Apartments, 33,6 % of the stock, are concentrated in the seafront developments and around Sion-sur-l'Océan, with smaller floor areas and faster turnover. The choice depends on the intended use, permanent occupation or seasonal stays, and on the service charges you accept.
Yes, on several counts. The municipality applies the loi Littoral of 1986, the French coastal planning act: new development must continue existing built-up areas and the hundred-metre strip from the shore remains unbuildable outside already urbanised areas. The Vendée corniche has been listed as a natural site since 1926, which regulates works visible from the coast. To this are added the wetlands of the Breton marsh and the low-lying sectors exposed to marine flooding, the municipality standing only a few metres above sea level on average. Buildable land therefore remains scarce.
This analysis is published by Immover, an independent observatory founded by Antony Barbier. Data sourced from official sources (DVF, INSEE, Notaries of France).