The average price per m² in Saint-Just-en-Chaussée is 1 634 €/m² for an apartment, based on actual notarised (DVF) sales. About 13 transactions are recorded each year.
Atmospheric illustration of Saint-Just-en-Chaussée, a small market town serving the Picardy plateau.
In Saint-Just-en-Chaussée, the reference price stands at 1 634 €/m² for an apartment, one of the most affordable levels in the Oise department. The local housing stock differs from that of neighbouring villages in its share of apartments, almost equal to that of houses, inherited from social housing and from buildings of the industrial period. These values come from DVF data, the French notarised sales database recording transactions actually registered with notaries, and not from estimates based on listings. The annual volume is small, which makes the average sensitive to the condition of the property and its energy performance.
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 Saint-Just-en-Chaussée market is first and foremost that of a small service town: it depends on the vitality of the Picardy plateau, on local jobs and on the administrative role of the municipality, seat of its inter-municipal authority. The population decline of 3,4 per cent since 2017 is the main negative signal, after a high point reached in 2018. It weighs on demand, while the housing stock, old and partly made up of apartments, suffers from a vacancy rate higher than that of neighbouring rural municipalities. Low prices reflect this combination more than any shortcoming in the quality of the buildings.
There is nonetheless a lever, and it is the railway. The Paris-Nord to Lille line places the municipality within reach of households from the Paris region looking to buy, a trend already observed further south in the Oise, in Creil and Compiègne. The decisive question will be the energy renovation of the housing stock: in a town where older apartment buildings account for nearly half of all homes, the value gap between renovated and energy-inefficient properties will continue to widen.
The municipality sits at the lower end of its area: its prices remain below those of Beauvais and Rantigny, and slightly exceed those of Nogent-sur-Oise, in the industrial valley.
Saint-Just-en-Chaussée owes its name to Saint Justus of Beauvais, a nine-year-old child martyr, and to its position on an ancient paved road. The town took shape before the fourth century at the junction of two roads known as the chaussées Brunehaut, on the route of the via Agrippa de l'Océan, which linked Lyon to the Channel. This crossroads explains the shape of the town, stretched along its main road, on a plateau whose altitude ranges from 86 to 172 metres, about 80 kilometres north of Paris. The municipality covers 14,66 square kilometres.
The arrival of the railway in 1846 turned the farming village into a small industrial town. The sugar refinery opened in 1873 became the main employer: it operated four months a year during the sugar beet season and employed up to four hundred people at its peak. Workers' housing, shops and services developed around it, making Saint-Just-en-Chaussée the focal point of the Picardy plateau. This seasonal economy, dependent on sugar beet and the railway, left a lasting mark on the appearance of the town and on the make-up of its housing stock.
The municipality had 5 810 inhabitants in 2023, after a decline of 3,4 per cent since 2017 and a peak of close to 6 033 inhabitants in 2018. It remains the seat of the Plateau Picard inter-municipal authority and still has its railway station, active on the Paris-Nord to Lille line and served by regional trains. This rail link, rare for a municipality of this size, is now its main residential asset compared with the larger towns in the south of the department.
According to INSEE, the French statistics institute, Saint-Just-en-Chaussée has 5 810 inhabitants and 91,6 per cent of its housing stock is occupied as main residences. The split between houses, at 52,8 per cent, and apartments, at 46,2 per cent, is almost balanced, which is unusual for a town of this size. Tenants are in the majority, accounting for 55,3 per cent of main residences, including 28,9 per cent in social housing, compared with 43,9 per cent owner-occupiers. The market is therefore aimed as much at investors as at first-time buyers, often households from the Picardy plateau or working people who use the station to travel to Creil, Amiens or Paris.
The reference price stands at 1 634 €/m² for an apartment. This figure comes from DVF data, covering sales actually signed before notaries. It is an average: a renovated apartment near the station and a poorly insulated older home sit on either side of this benchmark. The level remains one of the most affordable in the Oise department.
The station, opened with the line in 1846, is still in service on the Paris-Nord to Lille route and is served by regional trains. For a municipality of fewer than six thousand inhabitants, this rail link is a notable advantage: it makes daily commuting to Creil, Amiens or the Paris region possible. Properties within walking distance of the station are the most sought after on the local market.
The town industrialised after 1846 around the railway and then the sugar refinery opened in 1873, which employed up to four hundred people. This working-class history produced a stock of apartment buildings and a large share of social housing, which today represents 28,9 per cent of main residences according to INSEE. The municipality thus has 46,2 per cent apartments, an unusual proportion for a town in Picardy.
The structure of the housing stock, with 55,3 per cent tenants, points to genuine rental demand, driven by local jobs, the rail link and the municipality's role as a small service town. Purchase prices are low by regional standards. On the other hand, the population decline observed since 2017 and vacancies in the older housing stock call for a cautious reading of each property taken individually.
The main point to watch is energy performance: a large share of the buildings dates from the industrial and post-war periods, and poor energy ratings weigh heavily on value as well as on running costs. The Picardy plateau is also subject to surface runoff and mudflows, which are covered by the planning documents. The local urban development plan can be consulted at the town hall before any project.
This analysis is published by Immover, an independent observatory founded by Antony Barbier. Data sourced from official sources (DVF, INSEE, Notaries of France).