Looking for recreational land for sale in Vendée (85) means looking at a department where bocage countryside, marshland and coastal forests still leave plenty of room for small non-buildable plots: bocage meadows lined with hedgerows, wet grassland and reedbeds in the Marais Poitevin or the Marais Breton, oak coppices on the edge of the Mervent forest or the Olonne forest. On this page, ma-propriete.fr gathers the listings of recreational land for sale in Vendée: an enclosed meadow with a pond, woodland with water, a drained marshland plot, hunting or fishing land.
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 classified as agricultural or natural. A useful first step: 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 Vendée (85), 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) | 396 | €2,442/ha | €1,761/ha – €3,975/ha | €5,307/ha |
| Woodland (€/ha) * | 256 | €5,000/ha | €3,017/ha – €9,426/ha | €4,934/ha |
| Pond (€/m²) * | 53 | €2.19/m² | €0.82/m² – €5.46/m² | €2.54/m² |
Bare agricultural land is well below the national median (€5,307/ha), with the median price moving +4.6% between 2020 and 2025. Woodland trades close to 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: €2,442/ha of bare land is €0.24/m², against €2.19/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 regional figure for "Woodland"; regional figure for "Pond".
Inland Vendée is bocage country: small meadows enclosed by hedgerows, often crossed by a sunken lane, sometimes with a pond or stream at the back of the plot. This kind of non-constructible land is found from the Bocage vendéen, around Mortagne-sur-Sèvre and Les Herbiers, to the edge of the Bas-Poitou. The woods are mostly oak and chestnut coppices on the fringe of the Mervent-Vouvant forest, sought after for firewood and hunting.
The marshlands form a family of their own: drained or wet marshland plots in the Marais Poitevin to the south, wet meadows and reedbeds in the Marais Breton to the north, around Challans and Bouin. Some of these plots are sold with a hunting or fishing cabin, whose status must be checked before buying, especially in a Natura 2000 or protected wetland zone. Further inland, small orchards and old vegetable gardens attached to farmhouses sometimes come up for sale alongside the meadows, along with the occasional beehive plot.
The Bocage vendéen, around Les Herbiers, Mortagne-sur-Sèvre and Pouzauges, holds most of the hay meadows and small woods sold as recreational land, with easy access from the A87 motorway. The Marais Poitevin, near Fontenay-le-Comte, Maillezais and L’Île-d’Elle, offers wet plots popular with hunters and anglers, close to the A83. The Marais Breton, around Challans, and the edges of the Olonne forest, between Olonne-sur-Mer and Brétignolles, offer wooded plots close to the coast, where the coastal protection law (loi Littoral) applies to riverside and coastal communes. The plain around Luçon and Fontenay-le-Comte offers fewer opportunities: large-scale cereal farming leaves little room for small leisure plots.
The most affordable areas lie in the inland bocage, away from the motorways and the coast. Plots with a pond in the Marais Breton, woods near the Olonne forest and land bordering waterways in the Marais Poitevin sell well above the departmental average.
The first step is to check the commune’s local planning document (PLU): in an agricultural (A) or natural (N) zone, any new building is in principle prohibited, and a chalet, a light leisure dwelling or a caravan cannot be installed freely unless on a dedicated site. In coastal and marshland communes, the loi Littoral and Natura 2000 zoning add further restrictions, particularly around the Marais Breton and the Marais Poitevin, both classified as significant wetlands. Also check access to the plot (rural track, right of way, landlocked parcel), the presence of water and electricity, rare outside villages, and flood risk along the Vendée river, the Sèvre Niortaise and the marsh canals.
On agricultural parcels, the SAFER land agency may exercise its right of pre-emption, with a risk of the price being revised downward if it strays too far from local land prices. A pond or marsh ditch falls under the French water law, covering maintenance of dams, sluices and drainage canals. Finally, ask for the exact cadastral area and whether the boundaries have been surveyed, especially on marshland plots often resulting from old land divisions.
The listings of recreational land in Vendée published on ma-propriete.fr come from private sellers, estate agents and notaries. Filter by area, price and the presence of a pond, then set up an e-mail alert to be notified of new plots. You can also widen your search to recreational land for sale in Pays de la Loire.
