Where are France’s most expensive properties sold? A ranking of the 22 ultra-luxury municipalities

Where are the most expensive properties in France? Using official property sales data (the DVF database), we have identified the 22 "ultra-luxury" communes of the prestige property market: those where the median price exceeds €9,778 per m² of living space. At the top of the ranking, Èze, Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat and Villefranche-sur-Mer come close to €16,000/m², roughly 7 times the national median for the prestige segment. This article presents the full ranking, the geography of this micro-market, its real economic weight and — a key point — the method used to arrive at these figures from actual sales, rather than asking prices in listings. An analysis drawn from our Prestige Property Price Observatory, which covers 7,068 transactions between July 2020 and December 2025.

Contents

• A method based on actual sales, not listings
• The ranking of the 22 most expensive communes in France
• Three territories concentrate French ultra-luxury
• A micro-market: 3% of sales, 12% of volumes
• Our figures compared with other sources: a reassuring convergence
• Why Courchevel, Cap Ferret and Paris do not appear in this ranking
• Important caveats to keep in mind

A method based on actual sales, not listings

Most rankings of the "most expensive communes in France" are based on asking prices in listings or on automated estimates. These approaches have a well-known flaw: asking prices are systematically higher than the prices actually paid, and the gap can exceed 30% in the luxury segment, where negotiation margins are wide and some properties remain on the market for several years.

Our approach is different. We start from the Demandes de Valeurs Foncières (DVF), the public database that records property sales actually registered by the French tax authorities, with their authentic deed price. On this basis, we apply the scope of our Prestige Property Price Observatory:

• houses, villas, châteaux and mansions of more than 300 m² of living space;
• land ranging between 500 m² and 10 hectares;
• mainland France, excluding Paris and the overseas departments;
• sales cleaned of anomalous transactions (divisions, partial sales, inconsistent values).

This leaves 7,068 transactions over the July 2020 – December 2025 period, for a total volume of €8.72 billion. To isolate the ultra-luxury segment, we calculated the median price per m² of living space for each commune with at least 3 sales, then selected the top 5% of these communes. This statistical threshold — rather than a round figure set in advance — comes out at €9,778/m² of living space. Twenty-two communes cross it.

The ranking of the 22 most expensive communes in France

Here is the full ranking of the ultra-luxury communes, sorted by median price per m² of living space, cumulated over the July 2020 – December 2025 period. The median transaction price indicates the "central" amount of a sale in the commune, across all properties within the prestige scope.

The 22 ultra-luxury communes of the prestige property market — Source: DVF database, processed by ma-propriete.fr, cumulated July 2020 – December 2025

* The "Ordinary rural" category groups together, by convention, all communes that are neither coastal nor highly touristic (fewer than 30% second homes). Communes in the western Paris suburbs such as Neuilly-sur-Seine or Saint-Cloud therefore appear there by default: the label describes the classification method, not the landscape.

Three territories concentrate French ultra-luxury

The map leaves no room for ambiguity: French ultra-luxury is concentrated in three clearly identified territories.

The French Riviera and the Gulf of Saint-Tropez, the heart of the market

Eleven communes in the ranking are located in the Alpes-Maritimes and the Var. The top trio — Èze, Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat and Villefranche-sur-Mer — occupies a few kilometres of coastline between Nice and Monaco, with median prices ranging from €15,800 to €15,916/m². The Saint-Tropez peninsula follows very closely: Saint-Tropez, Gassin, Ramatuelle and La Croix-Valmer form a homogeneous cluster there, between €11,400 and €15,100/m². Cannes stands out for its volume: with 41 sales worth €177 million, it is the most active commune in the ultra-luxury segment. The presence of Tourrettes, in the Var hinterland (Pays de Fayence), shows that the very top end of the market can also settle inland when an exceptional residential hub develops there.

Southern Corsica, four communes in the ranking

Lecci, Grosseto-Prugna, Bonifacio and Porto-Vecchio place the far south of Corsica among the most expensive markets in France, between €10,300 and €15,052/m². The scarcity of buildable seafront land and a very affluent second-home clientele sustain price levels there comparable to those of the French Riviera.

Two pockets away from the coast: the Alps and the western Paris suburbs

Megève and Chamonix-Mont-Blanc represent Alpine ultra-luxury, built around large chalets whose median transaction price reaches €4.75 million in Megève. Finally, the western Paris suburbs — Neuilly-sur-Seine, Marnes-la-Coquette and Saint-Cloud — remind us that the most expensive communes are not all holiday destinations: here, prices are driven by large townhouses and properties in historic residential estates, serving a primary-residence clientele.

A micro-market: 3% of sales, 12% of volumes

These 22 communes account for 236 sales over five and a half years, barely 3.3% of the transactions in our prestige database. Yet they concentrate €1.06 billion, or roughly 12% of the total financial volume of the market. This is the singular nature of ultra-luxury: very few sales, but considerable amounts.

A few reference points to put this segment in perspective:

• Median transaction price: €4,526,225, compared with €773,000 for the prestige market as a whole — nearly 6 times higher.
• Median price per m² of living space: €11,751, compared with €2,131 nationally — a ratio of 5.5.
• Highest sale in the database within these communes: €8,085,740 (Megève).
• Average living space: 384 m², barely above the prestige market average (369 m²). It is therefore not the size of the properties that makes the difference, but the value of the location.

This last point deserves emphasis: for a virtually identical surface area, a property is worth 5 to 7 times more in these 22 communes than in the rest of France. The price gap measures almost exclusively the rarity of the setting — a Riviera seafront, a view of the Mont-Blanc massif, an address in the western Paris suburbs.

Our figures compared with other sources: a reassuring convergence

Before publication, we compared our ranking against the external sources available. Three lessons emerge.

The same communes come up everywhere. Rankings established across the entire residential market (all property types, DVF database) place Ramatuelle, Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, Saint-Tropez, Neuilly-sur-Seine, Megève, Èze, Villefranche-sur-Mer and Chamonix at the top — eight communes that also appear in our top 22. The geography of ultra-luxury is robust, whatever the method.

Our price levels are consistent with market estimates. In Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, estimates from specialist platforms put the average price at around €17,750/m² across all property types in mid-2025; our transactional median of €15,847/m² for large properties logically sits below that, as smaller surfaces are structurally more expensive per m². In Saint-Tropez, average asking prices in listings exceed €23,000/m², while our actual sales stand at a median of €15,114/m²: this gap illustrates the well-known difference in the luxury segment between presentation prices and deed prices.

The structure of the market is confirmed by professional barometers. Industry studies estimate that luxury real estate accounts for around 4% of French transactions but 17% of their value, and that the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region alone concentrates nearly 40% of ultra-luxury sales. Our own data tells the same story: 3.3% of sales for 12% of volumes, and 13 of the 22 communes located in PACA.

Why Courchevel, Cap Ferret and Paris do not appear in this ranking

Attentive readers will notice the absence of several communes reputed to be among the most expensive in France: Courchevel, Val-d'Isère, Lège-Cap-Ferret, Le Touquet and Paris. Their absence does not mean these markets are cheap — far from it. It stems from the scope of our observatory, which focuses on large properties:

• High-altitude ski resorts (Courchevel, Val-d'Isère, Tignes...) post some of the highest prices per m² in France, but their market is dominated by apartments and chalets built on small plots. Few properties there meet both of our criteria: more than 300 m² of living space AND a plot of at least 500 m². Megève and Chamonix, with their more open valleys and large chalets set in grounds, do cross the threshold.
• Cap Ferret and Le Touquet share the same characteristic: villas that are often of intermediate size, on narrow plots, which fall outside our definition of a prestige property.
• Paris is excluded by design from the observatory, which covers rural and peri-urban properties; the Paris market, almost exclusively made up of apartment buildings, follows a different logic.

This ranking is therefore that of the most expensive communes in France for large properties: houses, villas, châteaux and mansions of more than 300 m² set on genuine grounds. This is precisely what sets it apart from general-purpose rankings.

Important caveats to keep in mind

In the interest of transparency, two reading precautions are in order.

Sometimes small sample sizes. Several communes in the ranking have only 3 to 5 sales over the period (Èze, Lecci, Cassis, Grosseto-Prugna...). At these levels, the median remains the least fragile indicator, but a single atypical transaction can change a commune's rank. The ranking should therefore be read as a snapshot of price levels, not as a league table fixed to the exact rank. This is precisely why we set a minimum of 3 sales per commune: below that, no statistic can be published.

Part of the market escapes observation. In the ultra-luxury segment, a significant share of transactions takes place off-market, sometimes through company transfers (SCI) that do not appear in the DVF database. Our figures therefore describe the visible part of the market — the largest part, but not the whole. To understand how this discreet market operates, see our article on off-market prestige real estate.

Conclusion

The French market for large prestige properties has its "summit": 22 communes where the median price exceeds €9,778/m² of living space, with peaks close to €16,000/m² between Nice and Monaco. This micro-market — 3.3% of sales, 12% of volumes — is concentrated on the French Riviera and the Gulf of Saint-Tropez, southern Corsica, the major Alpine resorts and the western Paris suburbs. For an equivalent surface area, the gap with the rest of the country reaches a factor of 5 to 7: in ultra-luxury, it is the location that sets the price, far more than the building itself.

At the other end of the spectrum, it is worth remembering that nearly 8 out of 10 prestige transactions involve "ordinary" rural properties, with a median price of around €700,000: the French prestige market remains, above all, a market of character residences in the regions. The full set of figures — by region, by department and by geographic category — is available in our Prestige Property Price Observatory.

Find out more

• Prestige Property Price Observatory: all national, regional and departmental statistics.
• The full report on prestige property prices in France (free PDF): 18 pages of analysis, charts and a map of the departments.
• Off-market prestige real estate: accessing confidential properties.