There are many differences between Saint-Jean-de-Luz and Biarritz. Saint-Jean is a bit like the Saint-Tropez of the Basque Coast. It is a village of about 13,000 inhabitants whose architectural heritage is protected. We are right in the heart of Basque country, with a traditional architecture and life style. Biarritz is a proper town with its 35,000 inhabitants and a different, almost Anglo-Saxon architecture.” “We mainly sell houses along the seafront from Urrugne, Ciboure, Guéthary and Bidart to Biarritz.” “Today, Saint-Jean-de-Luz has become more expensive than Biarritz but we are still 30% cheaper than San Sebastian, which is the equivalent of the Bay of Saint-Jean-de-Luz on the Spanish coast.” “We have 600 potential buyers on our files and only thirty or so properties for sale. This can mainly be explained by the fact that, on an average, in Saint-Jeande- Luz, a property comes back on the market every 25 years! While in the south-east of France and Paris, the turnover is 7 years. But that doesn’t discourage buyers because 50% of them are ready to purchase as soon as we find the property they are looking for.” “We have apartments selling between 500,000 and 2 million euros and houses going for 900,000 to over 6 million euros. Our main target, which you could also call our “ticket to the market”, is 1.5 million euros for a large house outside Saint-Jean-de-Luz and you have to expect to pay the same price in the centre of Saint-Jean-de-Luz for about 200 sq.m. of living space.”
Nicolas de Rouyn