The average price per m² in Saint-Martin-de-Crau is 2 952 €/m² for an apartment, based on actual notarised (DVF) sales. About 30 transactions are recorded each year.
Atmospheric illustration of Saint-Martin-de-Crau, in the Crau plain, between the Alpilles and the Camargue.
In Saint-Martin-de-Crau, the average price of an apartment stands at 2 952 €/m², while a house trades at around 3 170 €/m². The municipality spreads across the Crau plain, that vast stony steppe between the Alpilles and the Camargue, some fifteen kilometres from Arles. Its stock is clearly dominated by detached housing, with a village of individual homes and developments that expanded as logistics activity grew across the plain. The apartment average covers dwellings of varied kinds, often recent, concentrated in the centre and its surroundings. The measured gap with house prices remains moderate, which reflects a market of main residences rather than one driven by holiday buyers. These figures come from the DVF database, which lists the sales actually registered with notaries. They provide a municipal benchmark, to be refined according to the area, the floor area and the condition of the property.
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-Martin-de-Crau market is driven by its population growth and by its economic anchoring in the Crau plain, between farming, natural heritage and logistics. Demand comes first from working households and families employed on the platforms in the municipality, in Arles or around the Étang de Berre, looking for a house at a more affordable price than on the coast. That local demand, less sensitive to tourist flows, gives the market steady activity throughout the year.
Supply remains marked by the place of detached housing and by a gradual expansion of individual-house districts, framed by the protection of the coussouls and the natural areas of the Crau. The proximity of the industrial and port area of Fos and the logistics role of the municipality support employment and therefore housing demand. The market keeps the profile of a main-residence market, more stable than the holiday-driven markets of the Provençal coast.
A municipality of the Crau plain west of the Étang de Berre, Saint-Martin-de-Crau sits at a price level close to that of the neighbouring inland towns, below the most sought-after parts of the Alpilles.
Saint-Martin-de-Crau is a recent municipality: it was detached from Arles and established as a municipality on 7 March 1925, after several requests for independence made by its inhabitants from the end of the nineteenth century. When it was created, the new territory had around 2 300 inhabitants. Setting its boundaries, against the neighbouring hamlets, was the hardest question to settle at its administrative birth.
The municipality draws its identity from the Crau plain, the last arid steppe in Europe, where Crau hay is produced and transhumant sheep farming is practised. Crau hay, from permanent irrigated natural meadows, has held AOC status since 1997 and AOP status since 2015: it is the first protected designation of origin recognised for a farm product not intended for human consumption. The coussouls, those stretches of pebbles, form a protected natural habitat characteristic of the area.
Over the past decades, the position of Saint-Martin-de-Crau, on the axis between Arles, the Étang de Berre and the port of Fos, has made it a major logistics hub. Large storage and distribution platforms have opened in the municipality, which now combines a long-standing farming vocation, a remarkable natural heritage and an economic role geared to transport and logistics.
Saint-Martin-de-Crau has 14 145 inhabitants, a level that makes it one of the larger municipalities on the edge of the Arles area. The stock is largely dominated by detached housing, with an individual-house fabric that has expanded in step with population growth and the rise of logistics across the plain. Buyers fall into several profiles. Families and working households employed on the logistics platforms, in Arles or around the Étang de Berre, looking for a house with land at a more measured price than on the coast. First-time buyers drawn by a supply of individual houses still affordable by the standards of the department. The market is above all one of main residences, driven by local employment and by the position of the municipality as a crossroads between the Alpilles, the Camargue and the industrial and port area.
The average price recorded is 2 952 €/m² for an apartment and around 3 170 €/m² for a house, based on the sales registered with notaries and published in the DVF database. These averages bring together varied properties, dominated by detached houses and village homes. The area, the floor area, the presence of land and the condition of the property create gaps around these benchmarks. A valuation based on comparable properties in the same district remains the best reference.
Partly. The municipality has become a leading logistics hub thanks to its position between Arles, the Étang de Berre and the port of Fos, which supports local employment and housing demand. That economic anchoring attracts working households looking to live close to their job. The property market nonetheless remains first and foremost residential, geared to detached housing and to main residences.
The municipality is crossed by the major routes linking Arles to Salon-de-Provence and to the Étang de Berre, with direct road access to the A54 motorway. It has a station on the line between Arles and Miramas. That connectivity, at the meeting point of the Alpilles, the Camargue and the industrial and port area of Fos, explains part of its residential and logistics appeal.
The municipality lies inland, on the Crau plain, away from the coast and from the most tourist-oriented parts of the Bouches-du-Rhône. Its market is that of a main-residence municipality, where the supply of individual houses is still relatively plentiful compared with coastal towns. That balance between local demand and available land keeps levels more affordable than in the nearby Alpilles municipalities, such as Saint-Rémy-de-Provence.
The stock is dominated by detached housing, which naturally steers the market towards the individual house with land, sought after by families. Apartments, fewer in number, are concentrated in the centre and its surroundings, often in recent developments, and appeal to first-time buyers and investors. The choice depends on your use and your budget, as the price gap between the two types remains limited in the municipality.
This analysis is published by Immover, an independent observatory founded by Antony Barbier. Data sourced from official sources (DVF, INSEE, Notaries of France).