A farmhouse for sale in Loire (42), a Forez farm building or a Pilat stone barn: between farming plain, granite hills and a former industrial basin, the department offers varied and still accessible rural buildings. This page brings together the farmhouses, barns and mas for sale in Loire published on ma-propriete.fr: a Forez farmhouse with outbuildings, a stone Pilat barn to renovate, a farm building from the Monts du Lyonnais, a former holding with a cowshed and shed. Altitude, road access and distance to the Roanne and Saint-Étienne job markets are among the criteria that most set listings apart from one another.
Below you will find the actual prices of the Loire rural market, an overview of where to look, from Forez to the Roannais, and the points to check before buying a former farm building. If your project is tourism-related, our white paper on setting up a rural gîte will help you cost it. Local professionals clearly distinguish plain-area files, simpler to handle, from mountain files, often more complex to process.
There are no statistics dedicated to farmhouses and barns: a renovated farmhouse sells like a country house with outbuildings and land, whereas a bare barn or a farm to renovate often sells well below. The most useful benchmark therefore remains the price of country houses.
How much does a country house cost in Loire (42)? According to DVF data (notarised sales) analysed by the ma-propriete.fr observatory, the median price of a country house in Loire (42) stood at €205,000 in 2025, with an average price of €205,173 and a median price of €1,957/m² of living space (1,565 house sales in rural municipalities over the year). The price range is wide: 10% of houses sold for less than €108,000 (floor price, 1st decile) and 10% for more than €308,300 (ceiling price, 9th decile). The typical country house here offers 109 m² of living space on an average plot of 3,352 m², i.e. around 0.3 ha.
This market is below the regional median (Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes: €230,000) and above the national median (€189,200). Since the second half of 2020, the median price has risen from €178,460 to €205,000, i.e. +14.9%; over one year (2024-2025) the change is +3.5%.
| 2025 indicator | Loire | Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes | France |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median price | €205,000 | €230,000 | €189,200 |
| Average price | €205,173 | €246,927 | €207,100 |
| Floor price (1st decile) | €108,000 | €98,000 | €90,000 |
| Ceiling price (9th decile) | €308,300 | €410,000 | €340,000 |
| Median price per m² of living space | €1,957/m² | €2,200/m² | €1,830/m² |
| Average living space | 109 m² | 109 m² | 108 m² |
| Average plot size | 3,352 m² | 3,243 m² | 3,181 m² |
| Number of sales in 2025 | 1,565 | 16,528 | 150,313 |
A departmental average hides large gaps. A smallholding to renovate, a restored longère with its outbuildings, a farmhouse on several hectares of land or a manor house with parkland do not sell at the same price, and the location matters as much as the building: coastline, tourist area, peri-urban countryside close to a job market or deep countryside. The table below shows the median price of country houses in Loire (42) by type of municipality (cumulative sales from mid-2020 to 2025) and its change between 2021 and 2025.
| Type of municipality | Median price 2020-2025 | Median price per m² | Change 2021-2025 | Sales 2020-2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Inland tourist areas (hinterland, mountains) | €149,000 | €1,435/m² | +12.0% | 262 |
| Peri-urban countryside (city catchment area) | €205,000 | €1,950/m² | +13.2% | 5,101 |
| Deep countryside (outside urban influence) | €190,000 | €1,831/m² | +1.2% | 3,621 |
These benchmarks help you assess a listing, estimate a property before putting it up for sale, or set your budget for a holiday home or a permanent move to the French countryside. To go further, see our observatory of country house prices in France (national, regional and departmental analysis, downloadable annual report) and work out the full cost of your purchase, including French notary fees, with our notary fees calculator.
On the Forez plain, the traditional farmhouse is laid out as a square around a courtyard, with a cowshed, stables and a fodder shed, often built of rammed earth or local stone under flat tiles. In the Pilat hills and the Roannais, buildings turn more mountain-like: steep-roofed granite barns designed for snow, sometimes paired with a combined byre-and-barn typical of the neighbouring Livradois farms. Mas and bastide are not found in Loire, those terms staying specific to the south of France.
Large, well-exposed Forez barns are often converted into a home or rural gîtes, subject to an approved change of use in an agricultural zoning area. The adjoining farmland, from a few hectares of pasture to larger plots on the Forez plain, suits keeping horses or, on well-exposed ground, a permaculture project. Some Roannais farms still have a bread oven and a dovecote, remnants of a mixed farming past that has now disappeared.
Around Roanne and the Roannais, as well as towards Feurs and Montbrison on the Forez plain, the choice of farms and barns to renovate is the widest, backed by a still-active livestock economy. The Boën-sur-Lignon area and the Forez hills, steeper terrain, offer older buildings at contained price levels.
Near Saint-Étienne and in the Pilat hills, renovated farmhouses are scarcer and trade clearly above the departmental average, driven by proximity to the Lyon conurbation. Towards Saint-Galmier and the Jarez hillsides, the rural market stays active but tight. Between the two, the Chazelles-sur-Lyon area and the Monts du Lyonnais form an intermediate zone, valued for its gentler relief.
Check the building's permitted use: in an agricultural zoning area, a barn can only become a home if it appears on the list of buildings eligible for a change of use. Check the roof (flat tiles in Forez, asbestos-cement sheets common on more recent sheds), the timber frame, particularly stressed on Pilat barns because of snow load, and the drainage. An asbestos survey and a check on the strength of the timber frame are recommended before any renovation project in mountain areas.
If farmland comes with the property, ask about any current farm lease and the pre-emption right of the Safer. Finally, cost the renovation precisely, especially high for mountain barns in the Pilat, which can have difficult access.
On ma-propriete.fr, filter Loire farms and barns by budget, built area and land area, set up an email alert to be told of new listings, and extend your search to all farmhouses, barns and mas for sale in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. It is also worth comparing properties by exposure and altitude, two decisive criteria for a farming or equestrian project in this varied terrain.
