The average price per m² in Vitré is 2 802 €/m² for an apartment, based on actual notarised (DVF) sales. About 74 transactions are recorded each year.
Atmospheric illustration of Vitré, on the slopes above the Vilaine, on the edge of Brittany.
The average price of apartments in Vitré stands at 2 802 €/m², based on DVF transactions actually registered with notaries. This average covers a contrasted stock: apartments in the medieval town and its surroundings, developments on the estates built since the 1970s around the centre, and recent small apartment buildings near the station and the business parks. Location, the age of the building, the condition of a property and its closeness to the historic centre or the station make values vary from one home to another. The market remains overwhelmingly geared to the detached house, which dominates the municipal stock.
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 Vitré market is that of a mid-sized town with stable rather than speculative demand. The DVF data shows a volume in the order of several dozen apartment sales a year, a turnover consistent with a stock made up mainly of houses occupied by their owners. The low share of second homes, around 3 %, confirms a market of residents: people buy in Vitré to live and work there, not for a holiday home, which limits the price swings tied to holiday demand.
Several factors support this market. Vitré benefits from a heavily industrial employment area, geared to food processing and logistics, whose unemployment rate is among the lowest in France. The closeness of Rennes, about twenty minutes away by train, also makes it a fallback municipality for working households looking for a heritage setting and prices more affordable than in the metropolitan area. The continued population growth of the town sustains a need for homes that new supply, driven by a few recent developments, only partly meets.
Vitré sits clearly below the Rennes metropolitan area and the municipalities of its ring, some thirty kilometres away. Its price level is closer to that of the historic towns of western France, such as Dinan, while staying below the large neighbouring towns of Anjou.
Vitré was born around its castle, standing on a spur of schist overlooking the Vilaine valley. A first timber structure was raised on a motte around the year 1000, on the Sainte-Croix hill, before Baron Robert I had a stone castle built in the 11th century. Riwallon de Vitré is named as the first baron in 1008. The town then grew as a stronghold guarding the eastern entrance to the duchy of Brittany, facing the borders of the Maine.
Around 1230, André II enlarged the fortress and surrounded it with ramparts enclosing the old town and the former church of Notre-Dame, forming a walled town. The town wall, built mostly in the years 1220 to 1240, had four gates of which only the Saint-Pierre gate survives. In the 14th and 15th centuries, the castle was strengthened to cope with artillery, with the gatehouse and the Madeleine, Saint-Laurent and Oratoire towers. These fortifications, reworked until the 17th century, are among the best preserved in Brittany.
The medieval prosperity of Vitré came from the trade in hemp cloth, exported across Europe and notably towards Flanders by the Confrérie des Marchands d'Outre-Mer, founded in 1472. The town endured a five-month siege in 1589, during the Wars of Religion. A sub-prefecture until 1926, it keeps today around seventy-five half-timbered houses, a body of buildings that places it among the French municipalities with the most listed monuments and earns it the Ville d'art et d'histoire heritage label.
Vitré has 19 365 inhabitants, a population rising steadily (in the order of 1,2 % a year over the last decade according to INSEE, the French national statistics institute). The municipality counts around 9 950 homes, of which 91 % are main residences, 3 % second homes and a little more than 5 % vacant: this is a market of residents, not of holidaymakers. Again according to INSEE, houses account for close to 58 % of the stock against 41 % apartments, and 55 % of main residences are occupied by their owners. Buyers are mainly households from the local employment area, which is heavily industrial, and working people employed in Vitré or in the neighbouring Rennes metropolitan area.
The average price of apartments in Vitré is 2 802 €/m², based on DVF transactions actually completed before notaries. This average hides differences by location, by the age of the building, by the floor, by the condition of the home and by its closeness to the historic centre or the station. A renovated apartment close to the medieval town and a home in the outlying apartment buildings do not trade at the same level.
The old town and its surroundings, around the castle, the ramparts and the streets of half-timbered houses such as the Rue de la Baudrairie, hold the most sought-after heritage, but supply there is scarce and often old. The residential districts developed since the 1970s around the centre offer more family houses. The areas around the station and the business parks attract working households and buy-to-let investors.
Vitré lies about 35 kilometres east of Rennes and its station sits on the main Paris to Rennes and Brest railway line. Frequent regional trains link the town to Rennes in about twenty minutes, which places it within the sphere of influence of the Breton metropolitan area. The station also offers services towards Laval, Le Mans and Paris. The municipality is served in addition by the A81 motorway, on the edge of the Maine.
Vitré rests on one of the most industrial employment areas in France, with a share of industrial jobs well above the national average and a local unemployment rate close to full employment. Food processing weighs heavily, with employers such as SVA Jean-Rozé. This economic base, coupled with the closeness of Rennes and a sought-after heritage setting, supports steady demand for homes, driven by buyers who settle here for the long term.
The market is mainly one of individual houses: according to INSEE, close to 58 % of the homes in the municipality are houses and 55 % of main residences are occupied by their owners. The reference price of 2 802 €/m² relates to the apartment segment, more present in the centre and near the station. Houses, geared to families, dominate the residential districts and trade according to their floor area, their plot and their condition.
This analysis is published by Immover, an independent observatory founded by Antony Barbier. Data sourced from official sources (DVF, INSEE, Notaries of France).