Looking for a country house for sale in La Réunion? Between the cirques of Cilaos, Salazie and Mafate, the volcanic highlands and the coast, the island offers a very distinctive rural housing stock: Creole cottages with covered verandas and carved wooden trim, highland houses in timber cladding, sloped land planted with orchards and vetiver. This page brings together the country houses for sale in La Réunion published on ma-propriete.fr by private sellers, estate agents and notaries.
The La Réunion market for country houses stays narrow, especially in the cirques and highlands: prices are assessed listing by listing, depending on the commune, altitude and condition of the building, rather than through statistical benchmarks. Our complete guide to buying a country house in France helps you along the way, from surveying Creole construction to financing.
The Réunion Creole cottage is recognisable by its covered veranda, its carved wooden trim under the roofline and its painted timber cladding. In the highlands and the cirques, traditional building relies on local wood to withstand humidity and the temperature swings that come with altitude; on the plains and along the coast, masonry dominates, reinforced against cyclones. Former planters' cottages and houses shaded by casuarina trees form part of the sought-after rural heritage, often needing full renovation. Highland tamarind wood, now a protected species, was long used for the roof frames of altitude cottages, since replaced by imported timber treated against damp.
The land around these country houses is often sloped, planted with orchards (lychee, mango, highland citrus) and sometimes vetiver or sugar cane. The most desirable properties sit in hamlets within the cirques or the highlands, with clear views over the volcanic terrain and a cooler climate than by the sea. In the Salazie cirque, known for heavy rainfall, maintaining the roof and its trim calls for particular vigilance against moss and constant humidity. A roof re-covering every fifteen to twenty years is common practice in the wettest cirques, and worth budgeting for even on an otherwise well-kept cottage.
The cirques of Cilaos, Salazie and Mafate (reachable only on foot or by helicopter) hold an exceptional rural housing stock but a very restricted market, as road access and remoteness sharply limit supply. The highlands around Saint-Benoît, La Plaine-des-Palmistes and Petite-Île offer a wooded, cool, quiet setting a short drive from the coast. The developed coastline, from Saint-Denis to Saint-Pierre via Saint-Paul, holds most of the population and leaves little room for a true country house. Between the two, the Route des Hauts links these highland villages and serves hamlets such as Bois de Nèfles or La Petite Plaine, valued for their cooler air.
Communes in the east, around Saint-André and Bras-Panon, and in the wild south, towards Saint-Philippe and Sainte-Rose, offer more affordable prices for farmland with a house to renovate, in a still very natural setting. Le Tampon and L'Entre-Deux, on the slopes of the Piton des Neiges, combine road access with a still-agricultural setting, halfway between the coast and the highlands. A short drive between two neighbouring hamlets can noticeably change the climate felt over the course of a day.
Exposure to natural hazards is decisive: a cyclone-prone zone, landslide risk in the cirques and on steep slopes, and possible proximity to lava flows in the south, all worth checking with the commune. A private drainage system is standard in the highlands and should be inspected, as should year-round road access, sometimes cut off by bad weather. The energy rating matters less than natural ventilation and altitude, which markedly change thermal comfort from one commune to another. The Cilaos and Salazie cirques are also classified as landslide-risk zones, which can limit extension or new-build possibilities. A geotechnical survey is strongly recommended before any building work on sloped land within the cirques. Checking the exact road classification with the commune is also worth doing before committing to a hamlet property.
Also check the local plan classification of sloped land, often constrained by risk zones, and whether an access easement applies to the most isolated properties in the cirques or highlands. Finally, ask about drinking-water availability, sometimes limited in the dry season in highland hamlets not connected to the main network.
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