The average price per m² in Salernes is 2 052 €/m² for an apartment, based on actual notarised (DVF) sales. For a house or villa, it is 3 366 €/m². About 29 transactions are recorded each year.
Atmospheric illustration of Salernes, in the Var hinterland.
The median price comes out at 2 052 €/m² for an apartment in Salernes, a value calculated from DVF sales, the transactions actually registered with notaries (DVF is the French record of notarised property sales). This average covers a mainly older stock, concentrated in the medieval centre and its residential extensions, where condition, aspect and the presence of outdoor space weigh heavily. The municipality remains above all a house market: for a villa, the square metre climbs to around 3 366 €/m². Few properties change hands each year, which makes every valuation sensitive to the precise features of the dwelling.
House : 3 366 €/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.
The Salernes market is carried by demography and by the appeal of the hinterland. The population has grown by around 4,7 % since 2017 according to INSEE, driven by households looking to settle within reasonable distance of Draguignan while enjoying a village setting. The spread of remote working and the search for space have strengthened that demand for Provençal houses. The municipality also keeps a strong image, tied to terracotta and ceramics, which feeds steady tourism and a share of second homes, without turning the village into a seasonal resort.
On the supply side, the stock remains dominated by older houses and detached homes, with few new schemes, which limits the renewal of the stock. The small number of annual transactions heightens the sensitivity of prices to rare properties, such as renovated village houses or villas with land. The absence of a station and the position away from the major routes contain land pressure, unlike the nearby coastal municipalities. The market therefore moves at a measured pace, driven more by local residential demand than by tourist speculation.
Salernes shows the most affordable square metre in this group. Draguignan, the neighbouring sub-prefecture, stays close, while Lorgues and Vidauban sit clearly above.
Human occupation of the site is very old: the Fontbrégoua cave, on the edge of the municipality, yielded a continuous stratigraphy spanning some ten millennia, down to around 2000 BC. In the eleventh century the territory belonged to the abbey of Saint-Victor in Marseille. The seigneury belonged to the Pontevès in the twelfth century, then passed to the Castellane by marriage in 1189. Raised to a marquisate in 1653 for Louis de Galléan, it passed in 1769 to the Galliffet family. In March 1789 a riot set the inhabitants against the local lord, against a background of debts and disputed rights.
The identity of Salernes was forged around clay. Faience production began at the end of the eighteenth century, on the model of neighbouring Varages. In the 1830s small terracotta workshops appeared, and around 1850 the village specialised in the tomette, the red hexagonal tile whose colour comes from the local iron-rich clay. The works supplied Toulon, Marseille and Nice, then exported to North Africa, Italy and America. The 1950s and 1960s brought rustic tiles and glazed terracotta. Some fifteen ceramicists and as many potters carry on that skill today.
Before the ceramic boom, the economy rested on oil, wine, figs and wheat, supplemented by silk mills and cloth works. The village settled in a hollow drained by the Bresque, between 184 and 481 metres above sea level, ringed by hills that contained its growth. The church of Saint-Pierre, Romanesque in origin and going back to the thirteenth century, keeps an old bell tower completed with a wrought-iron cage in the seventeenth century. Of the medieval castle, attested from the eleventh century and probably destroyed by fire in 1676, only ruins survive. The compact old fabric explains the place of village houses in today's stock.
Salernes has 4 019 inhabitants according to INSEE, the French national statistics office. It is first of all a municipality of year-round residents: main residences account for 70,3 % of dwellings, against 14,1 % second homes, a moderate proportion for the Var hinterland. The stock is largely detached, with 65,1 % houses to 33,2 % apartments, according to INSEE. Ownership dominates: 63,6 % of households occupy a home they own. Buyers are mainly families and local working people looking for a village house or a house with a garden, joined by buyers from the coast or further afield, drawn by prices more measured than on the shore.
The median price stands at 2 052 €/m² for an apartment, based on DVF sales registered with notaries. That figure serves as a benchmark but does not replace a valuation: in Salernes, the gap between an older dwelling in the centre and a renovated house with outdoor space is large. The scarcity of transactions makes a case-by-case analysis all the more useful, taking account of condition, floor area and the exact location of the property.
Clearly to houses. According to INSEE, they make up 65,1 % of the stock, against 33,2 % apartments. Demand is mainly for stone village houses and for detached houses with a garden. For a villa, the price per square metre reaches about 3 366 €/m², a clear gap with older flats. Apartments are concentrated in the historic centre, often in older buildings in need of renovation.
Salernes lies in the Var hinterland, about 22 kilometres west of Draguignan and 9 kilometres south of Aups. The municipality has no station: the nearest is Les Arcs-Draguignan, followed by the road. Access is therefore essentially by car, on the departmental roads. That position, away from the major routes, explains a quieter market and prices more contained than on the coastal fringe.
A distinction is drawn between the dense medieval old centre, with its narrow lanes and terraced houses, the more recent residential districts on the slopes, and the farming hamlets spread across a large territory of nearly 40 km². The presence of outdoor space, the view and car accessibility create noticeable differences in value from one area to another, from a village dwelling in need of renovation to a villa with land.
Several factors play a part: a population up by around 4,7 % since 2017 according to INSEE, the appeal of the Provence verte and the Dracénie for second homes, and a craft tradition in ceramics that keeps the village's reputation alive. Prices remain more affordable than on the Var coast, which attracts households looking for space. The low turnover of properties nevertheless limits the supply available and supports price levels.
This analysis is published by Immover, an independent observatory founded by Antony Barbier. Data sourced from official sources (DVF, INSEE, Notaries of France).