The average price per m² in Vichy is 1 950 €/m² for an apartment, within a range of 1,4 to 2,3 k€ per m², based on actual notarised (DVF) sales. Over the period, the market rose 21 % over 5 years and rose 6,6 % over the last 12 months, with about 510 transactions per year.
Illustration of Vichy, a spa town listed as a World Heritage site, on the right bank of the Allier.
Apartments in Vichy sell at an average price of around 1 950 €/m², based on transactions actually recorded (DVF data, the French notarised sales database). With 510 sales a year, this is the deepest market in the Allier department. Prices run from around 1 309 €/m² in Les Ailes to 2 408 €/m² in Vieux Vichy, a gap of 84 %: the geography of prices follows the distance from the springs very closely. Houses, at 1 986 €/m², trade at almost the same level as apartments, which is unusual and comes down to the local housing stock, 78 % of it in blocks of flats.
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 1 610 €/m² in 2021, the average price in Vichy reaches 1 950 €/m² in 2026, around +21 % over the period.
Change in the average price per m² over twelve months, district by district, based on the most recent DVF sales.
The average price per m² for an apartment in each district of Vichy covered by Immover, ranked from the most expensive to the most affordable.
The Vichy market has risen clearly over five years. The average apartment price went from 1 610 €/m² in 2021 to 2 011 in 2025, a rise of 21 % over the period, and it gains a further 6,6 % over the last twelve months. The rise is steady, with no dip, which is uncommon: most mid-sized towns levelled off in 2023. With 510 apartment sales a year, Vichy also offers a depth of market that few towns of 25 000 inhabitants reach, and that makes these figures solid.
Two features set this town apart. The first is the size of the gap between districts, 84 % from the most expensive to the most affordable, where a town of comparable size usually sits closer to 30 %. That gap is geographical before it is social: it follows the distance from the springs, from Vieux Vichy and Lac d'Allier out to Les Ailes and Les Garets. The second is the U shape of the size gradient, which makes the large apartment a sought-after product rather than a discount. A third point weighs on any purchase decision here: with 21,8 % of dwellings vacant and 8,2 % second homes, the stock remains sized for a cure clientele larger than today's, which explains a moderate price level given the built heritage on offer.
Vichy compared with the major French cities, on the average price per m² for an apartment.
Vichy owes everything to its springs, and its street plan tells that story. The medieval town grew on a plateau overlooking a crossing point on the Allier, around the church of Saint-Blaise and the seigneurial castle, away from the hamlet of Le Moutier where the hot waters rose. That original offset explains the shape of the town today: a tight old centre and, beside it, a spa town drawn in a single gesture in the nineteenth century. The Parc des Sources was created in 1812, on a suggestion from Maria Letizia Bonaparte to her son Napoléon I, who had noted during a stay that there was nowhere to walk. The Vichy pastille, the mint lozenge that carries the name, followed in 1825.
The decisive transformation came from Napoléon III, who stayed in the town five times between 1861 and 1866. An imperial decree of 1861 ordered the laying out of the park that bears his name, on a dead arm of the Allier drained by the building of a weir, works led by the engineer Jean-François Radoult de La Fosse, with the landscape design entrusted to the Moulins horticulturist Joseph Marie. Five chalets were built between 1861 and 1864 by the architect Jean Lefaure at 105-109 boulevard des États-Unis, in a style mixing the Alpine chalet and the English colonial house; they are listed historic monuments today. Boulevards, parks, hotels, a casino and a town hall followed. The Belle Époque completed the ensemble with the Hall des Sources in 1903, the work of the architect Charles Lecœur and the ironwork artist Émile Robert, the Thermes des Dômes in the same year, and the Opéra, the only Art nouveau auditorium in gold and ivory in France. The terrace of the Parc des Sources was then the largest in Europe, ahead of Vienna, with more than 4 000 coffees served a day.
The twentieth century left two opposing marks. The town was the seat of the French State from 1940 to 1944, which tied its name lastingly to that period. And it was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2021, under the Great Spa Towns of Europe, alongside ten other European spa towns. In between, spa activity shrank, and the town kept a housing stock sized for a larger cure clientele: 22 182 dwellings for 25 115 inhabitants, of which 21,8 % vacant and 8,2 % second homes. That imbalance is what holds Vichy prices at a moderate level given the built heritage on offer, and it is what Action Coeur de Ville, the national town-centre regeneration programme, is trying to correct by bringing around 120 town-centre dwellings back onto the market.
The next chapter is already written. The ZAC Vichy Lac, a development zone of seventeen hectares along the Allier and the Sichon, on the site of the stade Darragon and the former abattoirs, is the last large piece of building land in the town. The council resolution dates from 13 December 2021, the concession was awarded to the UrbanEra and CDC Habitat consortium, and the programme covers five hundred to seven hundred homes depending on the source, plus two managed housing complexes, two hotels and local shops. The scheme directly concerns three districts of the town: Jeanne d'Arc, Les Ailes and the edge of Lac d'Allier.
Vichy is an apartment market, and that is what sets it apart from every town of its size: 78,3 % of the housing stock is in blocks of flats, against 20,8 % houses. Three profiles meet here. Retired people and those at the end of their working lives, drawn by a dense, flat town that can be covered entirely on foot, where a large apartment with character costs what a house costs elsewhere. Investors, on a resort stock that lets on a yearly basis as well as furnished for spa cures. And local first-time buyers, in the outer districts, where the square metre falls below 1 500 €. The point to grasp before buying is that price here is paid in distance from the springs: 84 % separates Vieux Vichy from Les Ailes, the widest gap we measure in a town of this size. The second point is the size gradient, which is U-shaped: a studio costs 2 139 €/m², T2 flats fall to 1 840, then T4 and larger climbs back to 2 074. The large Belle Époque apartment carries no discount in Vichy, it is a sought-after product.
The average price in Vichy is 1 950 €/m² for an apartment (actual DVF transactions, notarised sales), within a range of 1 389 to 2 307 €/m² depending on the district. Listing portals show asking prices, 10 to 20 % above the prices actually recorded at signing.
Vieux Vichy, at 2 408 €/m², 23 % above the town average. It is the IRIS statistical unit, the smallest area used by INSEE, the French statistics institute, that holds the Parc des Sources, the Hall des Sources, the Grand Casino, the Opéra and the imperial chalets, in other words the heart of the UNESCO listing, together with the medieval town around the place d'Allier. Lac d'Allier follows very closely, at 2 341 €/m².
Because the town was built in rings around its springs. The gap runs from 1 309 €/m² in Les Ailes to 2 408 in Vieux Vichy, or 84 %, which is considerable for a town of 25 000 inhabitants. The rule is easy to remember: the further you move from the thermal district and the lake, the lower the price, and the building stock changes with it, from the large resort block of flats to the detached housing of the plateau.
The question barely arises here: 78,3 % of the stock is in apartments, and houses account for only 20,8 % of dwellings. The two also trade at almost the same level, 1 986 €/m² for a house against 1 950 for an apartment, which is unusual. Do watch the calculation convention, though: the price per square metre of a house is based on the built floor area, whereas the price paid also covers the land.
No, and that is one of the town's peculiarities. Studios and T1 flats come out at 2 139 €/m², T2 flats fall to 1 840, then T4 and larger climbs back to 2 074. This U shape is the signature of a resort housing stock: the large Belle Époque apartments, in the buildings of the thermal district, sell at the same level as a studio. Elsewhere, the price per square metre falls steadily as floor area rises.
Vichy was listed as a World Heritage site in 2021 under the Great Spa Towns of Europe. The direct effect is stronger protection for the thermal buildings and for the Parc des Sources, which the town bought back from the State in 2020 and is restoring. The indirect effect shows in prices: the two statistical units that carry the listed perimeter are also the two most expensive in the town, 15 to 23 % above the average.
Start with the distance from the thermal district and the lake, which is the first factor here, with an 84 % gap between the top and the bottom of the town. Then look at the period of construction: a Second Empire or Belle Époque resort building does not compare with a 1960s block of flats. Finally, adjust for the floor, the view, the condition and the energy rating. The Immover estimator draws on the actual recorded sales closest to your address.
This analysis is published by Immover, an independent observatory founded by Antony Barbier. Data sourced from official sources (DVF, INSEE, Notaries of France).