For lakes and ponds for sale in Loire, one area stands out: the Forez plain, between Feurs, Montbrison and Saint-Just-Saint-Rambert, where ponds dug from the 13th century onwards to raise carp and pike still dot the meadows. The rest of the department, from the Monts du Forez to the Pilat and from the Monts de la Madeleine to the Roanne area, mainly has small fishing ponds, farm reservoirs and a few leisure lakes. Sales of ponds without a house remain rare, and each one that comes up on the plain deserves a close look. This page gathers the fish ponds and leisure lakes for sale in Loire, listed by private sellers, estate agents and notaires: plain ponds, land with a pond, houses or farms with water.
Below, the price section places the department against the region and France. Then come our pointers for the plain and the hills: water supply from the Forez canal, Natura 2000 sites, legal status and draining, and the condition of dams and outlet structures. Our article on maintaining a fish pond is a useful companion.
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, 11 pond sales were recorded in Loire between July 2020 and December 2025, at a median price of €13,758/ha† and an average of €21,289/ha. With only 11 sales, the sample is too small for these average and median prices to be truly representative of the local market: the regional price is a sounder benchmark. With only 4 sales in 2025, the department does not allow a reliable annual price. In Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, 123 ponds sold over the same period at a median of €15,847/ha, and the regional median reached €19,818/ha in 2025† across 16 sales; the national median was €25,235/ha in 2025.
| Indicator | Loire (42) | Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes | France |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median price 2020-2025 | €13,758/ha† | €15,847/ha | €25,694/ha |
| Average price 2020-2025 | €21,289/ha† | €23,834/ha | €32,291/ha |
| Number of sales 2020-2025 | 11 | 123 | 2,053 |
| Median price 2025 | not published (4 sales) | €19,818/ha† | €25,235/ha |
| Number of sales 2025 | 4 | 16 | 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, 2 of them in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. Their median asking price is €94,000 for a median size of about 2.6 ha. These are advertised prices for whole properties, sometimes with a house or a pond, not recorded sale prices per hectare like those in the DVF database. To work out the full cost of a purchase, add the conveyancing fees with our notary fee calculator.
† 10 to 29 sales: sample too small to be representative of the local market. 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.
Forez ponds were born of medieval fish farming and later served for irrigation: in the 19th century, farmers held on to their ponds to water their fields, even as the authorities sought to remove the most unhealthy ones. There are far fewer today than at the start of that century, but they still form a coherent group of shallow waters fringed with reed beds and wet meadows. Many are still drained for the fish harvest, usually in autumn or winter, then restocked with carp, pike, tench or roach.
Since the second half of the 19th century, the Forez canal, which now draws water from the Loire at the Grangent dam, has irrigated the plain and also supplies some of these ponds. Their value for birds has earned the plain a Natura 2000 special protection area, while a separate site of community importance covers certain Forez ponds. On the riverbank, former gravel pits have become the Écopôle du Forez, a haven for waterbirds.
The plain attracts three profiles. Fish farmers and owners of several ponds expand their holdings to run draining and fish sales on a larger scale. Anglers from Saint-Étienne, Lyon or Roanne look for a private fishing pond, ideally with a hut or small house. Wildfowlers favour ponds with reed beds, often combined with a few plots of woodland: holdings geared towards shooting are listed among the hunting estates in Loire.
Away from the plain, buyers rather look for a farm with a pond in the Monts du Forez, the Monts du Lyonnais or the Madeleine hills, or leisure land near the Grangent and Villerest lakes, two Loire reservoirs that are busy in summer; on the first, the Château de Grangent stands on an island.
For a Forez pond, the first document to ask for is the one establishing its legal existence. A pond predating the French Revolution may be recognised as “fondé en titre” if its age can be proven, for example from the Cassini map or old deeds; all others must have been declared or authorised under water law. The Loire basin covers most of the department, and the Loire-Bretagne water master plan (SDAGE), with which water-law decisions must be compatible, is restrictive about creating new ponds: an existing, lawful pond therefore has a value that is hard to recreate.
Within Natura 2000 areas, major dredging, reshaping the banks or removing a reed bed may require a Natura 2000 impact assessment. Finally, check the fishing regime, closed or open water, and the terms of access to water from the Forez canal if the pond depends on it.
A shallow plain pond silts up and warms quickly: ask when it last had a dry fallow year (assec) or was last dredged, and look at how much reed bed there is, useful for birds but invasive if not kept in check. Have the dam (chaussée), the outlet (moine) and the fish catch basin, often old, inspected, along with the supply and drainage ditches, sometimes shared with neighbouring ponds: a poorly defined drainage easement is a classic source of disputes. Cormorant predation, invasive species such as water primrose or American crayfish, and water quality in summer complete the inspection.
On ma-propriete.fr, ponds and properties with water in Loire are put up for sale by private sellers, agents or notaires. Filter by size and budget, save an alert to hear about new offers on the Forez plain, or post your listing if you are selling. To add a wood to your pond, see our forests and woodland plots for sale in Loire, and for other pond country such as the Dombes, the selection of ponds throughout Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes.
