The average price per m² in Villefranche-sur-Saône is 2 504 €/m² for an apartment, based on actual notarised (DVF) sales. About 436 transactions are recorded each year.
Illustration of Villefranche-sur-Saône, capital of the Beaujolais.
The average price recorded in Villefranche-sur-Saône stands at 2 504 €/m². This average covers a stock that is overwhelmingly collective, apartments making up most of the municipality's homes. The gaps are marked between the old centre, around the rue Nationale and its town buildings, the co-ownerships of the 1960s and 1970s built to the west and south, and the rare suburban areas. Homes located in the districts undergoing urban renewal pull the average down. These figures come from the DVF database, which records the transactions actually recorded at the notary (DVF is the French notarised sales database), not the prices displayed in listings.
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 2 287 €/m² in 2021, the average price in Villefranche-sur-Saône reaches 2 504 €/m² in 2026, about +9 % over the period.
The Villefranche-sur-Saône market is first of all a spillover market. The price level reached in the first ring of Lyon pushes some buyers to move up the Saône valley, where the regional train puts Lyon Part-Dieu about twenty minutes from the station. This accessibility supports demand in the centre and the districts close to the station, while the poorly served areas remain dependent on local demand. The municipality's population, stable at a little over 36 000 residents, does not on its own feed the pressure on prices.
The second driver is the transformation of the stock. The urban renewal operations on Belleroche and the delivery of new schemes on former sites close to the centre, such as the eco-district of la Quarantaine, renew a supply long dominated by the co-ownerships of the 1960s and 1970s. The vacancy rate, close to 10 % according to INSEE, also signals an old stock hard to sell without works. Renovated properties, well rated on the energy performance certificate, stand out clearly from the rest of the market.
Villefranche-sur-Saône shows the lowest price level in this comparison, far behind Lyon and the municipalities of its first ring. The gap measures what some thirty kilometres of distance from the centre of the conurbation represent.
Villefranche-sur-Saône was founded around 1140 by the will of the lords of Beaujeu, who established a new town on the road linking Lyon to Mâcon to contain the influence of the archbishops of Lyon. The charter of franchises granted in 1260 gave the city its name and drew inhabitants by guaranteeing them commercial privileges. The medieval layout, still legible today, forms an elongated shape often compared to a boat, organised around a single axis, the present rue Nationale, about 1 500 metres long. The collegiate church of Notre-Dame des Marais, built above the Morgon that crosses the centre, marks its heart.
In 1514, Villefranche replaced Beaujeu as capital of the Beaujolais, then in 1532 became the seat of a bailiwick, which lastingly anchored its administrative functions. The merchant prosperity of this period can still be read on the rue Nationale, lined with Renaissance houses whose facades and inner courtyards are, for several of them, protected as historic monuments. From the 17th to the 19th century, the local economy rested largely on textiles, with the making of cloth and fustian, an activity that shaped the suburbs and settled a working population. The ramparts, now useless, were mostly demolished in the early 19th century and gave way to the boulevards that ring the centre.
The municipality absorbed Béligny in 1853 and the station was brought into service on 10 July 1854, which accelerated industrialisation. In the 20th century, growth translated into the construction of large housing estates to the west and south, including Belleroche in the 1960s and 1970s, to house industry workers. The opening of the A6 toll barrier at Limas, in 1964, placed the town on the north-south motorway axis. A sub-prefecture of the Rhône, the town saw its administrative role strengthened after the creation of the Metropolis of Lyon in 2015: its arrondissement became the only one in the department. Since the 2010s, the municipality has been reshaping these legacies, with the eco-district of la Quarantaine near the centre and a national urban renewal programme on Belleroche, a district selected by the ANRU among the sites of national interest.
Villefranche-sur-Saône has 36 172 residents and plays the role of a main town for the north of the department. According to INSEE, the municipality has around 20 150 dwellings, of which nearly 87 % are main residences and only 2 % second homes: the market is driven by buyers who come to live there, not by a holidaymaking clientele. Also according to INSEE, 85 % of dwellings are apartments, and 37 % of households own their main residence against 62 % tenants. Buyers are therefore mainly first-time buyers and working households who find here floor areas out of reach closer to Lyon, along with investors targeting a rental stock fed by the town's jobs and schools.
The average price observed in Villefranche-sur-Saône is 2 504 €/m². It is an average calculated on the sales recorded in the DVF database, fed by notarised deeds. It mixes very different types, from the town-centre studio to the family apartment in a co-ownership. For a specific property, the floor, the general condition, whether there is outdoor space or parking can move the value appreciably away from this average, up or down.
Demand concentrates on the old centre, around the rue Nationale and the collegiate church of Notre-Dame des Marais, where the town buildings and the Renaissance houses offer sought-after volumes. The surroundings of the station and the eco-district of la Quarantaine attract working people employed in the Lyon conurbation. Conversely, the large housing estates of the west and south, such as Belleroche, sell at levels clearly below the municipal average.
The station, brought into service in 1854, is served by the regional trains of the Mâcon-Lyon line: the journey to Lyon Part-Dieu takes about twenty minutes for around 27 kilometres, which makes daily commuting realistic. By car, the A6 serves the town via the Villefranche-Sud interchange, on the Limas side, and Villefranche-Nord, on the Arnas side. The proximity of the station is a selling point that weighs on properties in the centre and its surroundings.
The stock is very largely collective. According to INSEE, around 85 % of the municipality's homes are apartments and fewer than 14 % are detached houses. A house seller therefore addresses a narrow but little-contested segment, often families who wish to stay in town without moving out to the Beaujolais municipalities. For an apartment, the supply is more abundant and comparison with neighbouring properties plays a greater part in the final price.
Belleroche, a district straddling Villefranche-sur-Saône, Gleizé and Limas, is the subject of a national urban renewal programme led by the ANRU: demolitions, housing diversification, new school, health and retail facilities. These works change the immediate environment of the homes concerned and unfold over several years. An owner selling there today must take account both of the current price level of the area and of the timetable of the operations under way.
This analysis is published by Immover, an independent observatory founded by Antony Barbier. Data sourced from official sources (DVF, INSEE, Notaries of France).