Looking for recreational land for sale in Yonne (89) means exploring a department of hedgerows, woods and ponds, between the Puisaye, the Yonne valley and the first foothills of the Morvan. Non-buildable plots remain plentiful here: meadows lined with hedges around Toucy and Saint-Fargeau, woodland in the Forêt d'Othe, quiet ponds tucked into the Puisaye countryside. On this page, ma-propriete.fr gathers the listings of recreational land for sale in Yonne: an enclosed meadow, woodland with access, a pond with a cabin, an agricultural or natural plot to develop.
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 in an agricultural or natural zone. Before committing, read our guide on how to turn agricultural land into recreational land: it explains what local planning rules allow, and what they rule out.
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 Yonne (89), 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) | 164 | €3,094/ha | €2,385/ha – €4,500/ha | €5,307/ha |
| Woodland (€/ha) | 106 | €4,405/ha | €1,498/ha – €15,964/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 +6.6% between 2020 and 2025. Woodland trades 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: €3,094/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".
Yonne is shaped by the bocage of the Puisaye, where hay meadows lined with hedges and ponds remain the most common type of plot, at some of the more affordable prices in Burgundy. They make up most of the supply of non-constructible land. Woods are mostly concentrated in the Forêt d'Othe to the north and around the Tonnerrois, with oak and hornbeam stands worked for firewood and hunting.
Ponds, scarcer in the department, are found mainly in the Puisaye, a historic centre of Burgundian fish farming, often inherited from former monastic or manorial fishponds. Some are sold with a cabin or an old keeper's house, whose status must be checked before buying. These remnants of a monastic past often give these ponds a heritage character that buyers particularly value.
The Puisaye, around Saint-Fargeau, Toucy and Saint-Sauveur-en-Puisaye, concentrates most of the department's bocage meadows and ponds. The Yonne valley, from Joigny to Auxerre and on towards Avallon, offers valley-bottom meadows and riverbanks. To the north, towards Sens, the Forterre adds more open plains where wooded plots become scarce. The Tonnerrois, to the east, mixes vineyards and woodland on the hillsides, with less direct access to Paris and Dijon. Towards Avallon, to the south, the terrain already becomes hillier on the approach to the Morvan, with steeper woods and narrower valley-bottom meadows.
The most affordable areas remain the deep Puisaye, away from main roads, and the southern Tonnerrois. Meadows close to Auxerre and Sens, better served by road and by the TER to Paris, sell above the departmental average. These valleys offer a greener setting than the open plains of nearby Champagne, just to the east of the department. This makes the area a reasonable entry point for buyers priced out of more central parts of Burgundy.
In an agricultural (A) or natural (N) zone, new building remains in principle prohibited: a chalet, a cabin or a light leisure dwelling should be checked against the local planning document before any purchase. Extended parking of a caravan or a mobile home is also regulated. An existing shelter is only an asset if it was properly authorised; otherwise it may have to be removed. Also check access (rural track, right of way, landlocked parcel) and the presence of water and electricity, rare outside villages. These checks matter just as much for a modest meadow as for a larger wooded plot.
On land classified as agricultural, the SAFER land agency may exercise its right of pre-emption, with a risk of a lower price being set if the asking price strays from local Yonne land values. For a Puisaye pond, French water law governs the dam, the outlet and maintenance of the water body. Finally, have the boundaries and exact cadastral area checked before signing. especially on small Puisaye plots that often come from old family land divisions.
The listings of recreational land in Yonne published on ma-propriete.fr come from private sellers, estate agents and notaries. Filter by area, price and the presence of a water feature, then set up an e-mail alert to be notified of new plots as soon as they are listed. You can also widen your search to recreational land for sale in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté.
