Looking for recreational land for sale in Côte-d'Or (21) means looking at a department that combines cereal plains, the bocage of the Auxois and the forests of the Châtillonnais, where small non-constructible plots remain plentiful away from the large open plains: meadows used for Charolais cattle, oak and beech woods, and the occasional pond in a small valley. On this page, ma-propriete.fr gathers the listings of recreational land for sale in Côte-d'Or: a bocage meadow, deciduous woodland, a plot with a cabin or an old sheepfold.
You will find price benchmarks drawn from actual sales, an overview of the areas where these plots are concentrated and the points to check before buying a parcel in an agricultural or natural zone, whether it is a plain hay meadow or a wooded plot backing onto a larger forest block. Before any viewing, go through our guide on how to turn agricultural land into recreational land: it sets out what planning rules permit on an agricultural or natural parcel, and what they prohibit.
There is no such thing as a "recreational land price" in the French notarial records: the DVF database records sales of agricultural land, woodland and ponds, and a recreational plot is priced against these three benchmarks, higher or lower depending on what it adds (vehicle access, a water point, fencing, an existing shelter, a village nearby). The table below gives, for each benchmark, the sales recorded in 2025 in Côte-d'Or (21), the median price and the range between the first decile (floor) and the ninth decile (ceiling), with the national figure for comparison.
| DVF 2025 benchmark | Sales | Median price | Range (P10 – P90) | France median |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bare agricultural land (€/ha) | 170 | €3,065/ha | €1,942/ha – €4,620/ha | €5,307/ha |
| Woodland (€/ha) | 73 | €3,786/ha | €1,912/ha – €11,970/ha | €4,934/ha |
| Pond (€/m²) * | 313 | €2.54/m² | €1.03/m² – €6.90/m² | €2.54/m² |
Bare agricultural land is well below the national median (€5,307/ha), with the median price moving +5.3% between 2020 and 2025. Woodland trades well below the national benchmark (€4,934/ha), and a pond, a much rarer asset, is valued per square metre of water and banks. To compare a listing, bring everything back to the square metre: €3,065/ha of bare land is €0.31/m², against €2.54/m² for a pond. Recreational land, almost always classified as an agricultural or natural zone, generally sells slightly above bare agricultural land; but it usually remains subject to the SAFER land agency's right of pre-emption, and the SAFER may pre-empt with a downward price revision if the price is excessive compared with local land prices. These benchmarks therefore also help you avoid paying a price the SAFER would challenge.
Find the detail by department, plot size and year in our agricultural land price observatory and in the forest price observatory. Source: DVF (Demandes de valeurs foncières), 2025 sales, processed by ma-propriete.fr; medians published from 30 sales upwards. * Fewer than 30 sales in the department: the benchmark shown is the national figure for "Pond".
The Auxois, in the south-west of the department, is bocage meadow country par excellence: plots enclosed by hedges, used for Charolais cattle, often sold as non-constructible land for grazing or hay. The Châtillonnais, to the north, by contrast holds most of the department's large forest blocks, oak and beech stands worked for firewood and hunting. To the east, the cereal plain along the Saône and the wine-growing hinterland leave little room for recreational plots, taken up instead by large-scale crops or vines.
Ponds are few in Côte-d'Or: a handful of isolated stretches of water in the Châtillonnais, often old fish-farming reserves, or enlarged farm ponds in the Auxois. A plot sold with a cabin or an old sheepfold should always have the legality of the structure checked before you buy.
The Auxois, around Semur-en-Auxois and Saulieu, offers the densest bocage and the widest supply of meadows, in an area still away from the main roads. The Châtillonnais, around Châtillon-sur-Seine and Montbard, serves extensive forest blocks, with access helped by the RN71 road and Montbard's rail link to Paris. The Côte-d'Or's Morvan fringe, on the border with Saône-et-Loire and Nièvre, adds wooded slopes and a few modest-altitude meadows, on more pronounced terrain. Around Dijon and along the Ouche valley, plots grow scarcer as urban development advances.
The most affordable areas lie in the Châtillonnais and the northern Auxois, where the supply of woods and meadows stays wide. Close to Dijon and along the roads towards Paris or Lyon, well-connected meadows and the rare plots with water sell well above the departmental average, while the wine-growing hinterland to the east barely offers any land suited to a recreational project.
The first step is to read the commune's local planning document (PLU): in an agricultural (A) or natural (N) zone, which covers most of the Auxois and the Châtillonnais, no new building is in principle allowed, and a cabin, a chalet or a light leisure dwelling cannot be installed freely. Also check access to the plot, a rural track or right of way, more often an issue in fragmented bocage areas, as well as whether water and electricity are connected, which is rare outside villages.
On parcels classified as agricultural, SAFER may exercise its right of pre-emption, with the price revised downward if the asking amount strays from the local price of Charolais farmland. A pond requires knowing its status under the French water law and the condition of the dam. Finally, ask for the exact cadastral area and a recent boundary survey, often missing on small inherited plots, and confirm that any old shed on the property was properly authorised before it changed hands.
The listings of recreational land in Côte-d'Or published on ma-propriete.fr come from private sellers, estate agents and notaries. Filter by area, location, price and the presence of water, then set up an e-mail alert so you hear about a new bocage meadow or a wooded plot as soon as it is listed. You can also widen your search to recreational land for sale in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté.
