Looking for lakes and ponds for sale in Indre? With the Brenne, the department holds one of France’s great pond landscapes: north of the Creuse, around Mézières-en-Brenne, Rosnay and Saint-Michel-en-Brenne, a few thousand ponds follow one another between heath, wet meadows and woodland. Outside the Brenne, what comes on the market is mostly hedgerow ponds in the Boischaut and small leisure lakes at the edge of pasture. This page brings together the ponds and lakes on the market in the department, whether a fishing pond, a working fish-farming pond, land with a pond or a house with a pond, listed by private sellers, estate agents and notaires.
Further down you will find the prices at which ponds actually sell in Indre and across Centre-Val de Loire, followed by what sets a Brenne pond apart from an ordinary lake: the rules of the regional nature park, the harvest calendar, the hydraulic structures and invasive species. Before viewing, take the time to read our article on routine pond maintenance, which sets out the work to plan for.
According to the ma-propriete.fr pond price observatory, which keeps only ponds, lakes and pools sold without buildings in the French DVF land registry data, 130 pond sales were recorded in Indre between July 2020 and December 2025, at a median price of €18,363/ha and an average of €22,069/ha. Per square metre, the median works out at about €1.84. In 2025, 25 sales give a median of €22,547/ha†. In Centre-Val de Loire, 311 ponds sold over the same period at a median of €21,707/ha, and the regional median reached €22,472/ha in 2025* across 55 sales; the national median was €25,235/ha in 2025.
| Indicator | Indre (36) | Centre-Val de Loire | France |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median price 2020-2025 | €18,363/ha | €21,707/ha | €25,694/ha |
| Average price 2020-2025 | €22,069/ha | €27,210/ha | €32,291/ha |
| Number of sales 2020-2025 | 130 | 311 | 2,053 |
| Median price 2025 | €22,547/ha† | €22,472/ha* | €25,235/ha |
| Number of sales 2025 | 25 | 55 | 300 |
These figures divide the sale price by the total area of the property, banks and surrounding woodland included: a small, well-equipped pond always comes out dearer per hectare than a large lake surrounded by rough ground. They describe ponds sold on their own; once a house or a sizeable wood is added, the price is built differently.
On the listings side, 26 properties with a pond are offered on ma-propriete.fr across France as of 2 October 2026, 4 of them in Centre-Val de Loire. Their median asking price is €94,000 for a median size of about 2.6 ha. These are asking prices for complete properties: they describe the supply on offer more than the average price of a wooded hectare. To work out the full cost of a purchase, add the conveyancing fees with our notary fee calculator.
Source: DVF (French tax authority), processed by ma-propriete.fr; ponds, lakes and pools without buildings of at least 2,000 m², with water covering at least half of the property; July 2020 to December 2025. Listings recorded on 2 October 2026.
The first Brenne ponds were dug in the twelfth century by monks from the abbeys of Saint-Cyran, Méobecq and Fontgombault, on clay land where water lay stagnant. The Grande Brenne, north of the Creuse, holds most of them among its sandstone knolls, known locally as “buttons”; south of the river, the hillier Petite Brenne has far fewer. Fish farming is still very much alive: from autumn to early spring, the ponds are drained and then harvested following customs handed down over generations. Carp makes up most of the catch, alongside roach, tench and pike; part of the harvest goes to the table, the rest to restocking other waters.
Several types of buyer meet in this market. Fish farmers and established owners look to enlarge their holding or to take over a neighbouring pond fed by the same chain. Hunters target ponds fringed with reed beds for wildfowl, and the surrounding woods for big game: our page on hunting estates in Indre describes these shoots. Other buyers, from elsewhere in France or from abroad, want a leisure pond near a house; they search the more open hedgerow country of the Boischaut as much as the Brenne itself. Those torn between several parts of the Berry often compare with the ponds in neighbouring Cher.
The Brenne is a regional nature park and a wetland of international importance under the Ramsar Convention, and a large share of its ponds lies within Natura 2000 sites. None of this rules out fishing or draining, but works are supervised: reshaping a dam, dredging, creating or enlarging a pond all require you to consult the DDT, the departmental territorial office, and where needed to provide a Natura 2000 impact assessment. Ask the seller for the documents proving that the pond exists lawfully. Many Brenne ponds predate the French Revolution and can claim a right “fondé en titre”, provided old maps or deeds prove it; the others need an authorisation or a receipt of declaration under water law. Lastly, check whether the pond discharges into a watercourse classified for ecological continuity, which may require changes to the outlet structure.
On site, inspect the dam, the outlet tower (the “moine”) and its plug, the flood spillway and the catch pit where fish gather during draining. Ask when the pond was last harvested, what it yielded and whether it refilled normally over recent winters: dry years reduce the number of ponds that can be fished. Two threats weigh on the value of a Brenne pond. Red swamp crayfish, now established in many Brenne ponds, burrow into the banks and eat the aquatic plants, while water primrose spreads along the shores and the shallow tails of the ponds. The park runs trapping and clearance campaigns, but upkeep falls first on the owner. Cormorant predation also cuts sharply into fish-farming income: find out which culling permits the prefecture grants to fish farmers.
Indre pond listings on ma-propriete.fr come from owners selling privately, from estate agencies and from notaires’ offices. Sort them by size or price, save an alert so you hear as soon as a Brenne pond goes online, or post a listing for your own. For a property that combines water and woodland, browse our woods and forests for sale in Indre; to compare with neighbouring departments, see the ponds and lakes for sale across Centre-Val de Loire.
