What Riviera hinterland houses really sold for: DVF sold prices, town by town

DVF is the register of property transfers that French notaries report to the tax authority. It lists the sale date, the price, the address, the built surface, the number of rooms and the plot size. It does not list the condition of the house, the view, the pool, the renovation level or whether the buyer negotiated a furnished sale. Those omissions matter, and we come back to them in section 9.

Our method is simple and we would rather state it than hide it. We kept only completed sales (nature of mutation "Vente"), only houses and apartments, and only transactions that contain a single dwelling, so that a price can be attributed to one surface. We removed deeds with a built surface under 9 m², prices under €20,000, and any result outside €800 to €25,000 per m². We then took the median price per m² of built surface for each commune and type, for 2024 and for 2025. The source is the Etalab geo-dvf department file for the Alpes-Maritimes (06).

Two limits are worth knowing. The built surface in DVF excludes the plot, so a house on 8,000 m² of olive grove and a house on 800 m² can show the same price per m² of floor area while being very different assets. And the small-sample warning is real: Opio recorded only 2 apartment sales a year and Châteauneuf-de-Grasse 28 house sales, so we treat those medians as indicative.

The register also runs behind the market. In October 2026 the DVF update added sales from 1 January to 30 June 2026 (about 604,800 transactions nationally, according to the Immovrai summary of the release) and reloaded 2025 in a corrected version. At the time of writing, the open geo-dvf commune files we use still stop at 2025, so every commune figure below is full-year 2025. We will publish half-year 2026 medians once those files appear. The next DVF release is expected in spring 2027.

Here are the median sold prices per m² of built surface for houses, with the number of sales behind each figure. Read the sample size before you read the percentage.

Source: DVF via Etalab geo-dvf, Alpes-Maritimes, our calculation. Single-dwelling sales, median €/m² of built surface.

Mougins is the cleanest signal in the table. With 162 house sales in 2025 the median is robust, and it rose by 7.6% to €7,354 per m². Valbonne is the second robust reading, with 75 sales and a 6.9% rise. Those two communes absorb most of the Sophia Antipolis and Cannes-side demand, and the numbers say that demand held up through 2025.

Châteauneuf-de-Grasse also shows a rise of 7.5%, but 28 sales is a thin base, and a few large estates can move a median by several hundred euros. Opio, with 33 sales, is flat near €7,080 per m², which is still the second highest figure in the group. We would call Opio stable and expensive, not stalled.

Grasse barely moved in houses (-0.5% on 215 sales), which fits what we see on the ground. The Grasse house market spans a wide range, from old-town townhouses to Plan de Grasse family homes, and it has not repriced upward the way Mougins has. We explain why that matters for value in section 7.

Now the comparison most buyers never see. We set the 2025 DVF house medians against the MeilleursAgents house estimates. For Valbonne, Mougins, Biot and Grasse we use the 1 October 2026 figures. For Opio and Le Rouret we use the 1 September 2026 estimates already in our autumn price guide. We have no current MeilleursAgents house figure for Roquefort-les-Pins or Châteauneuf-de-Grasse, so we leave them out.

Sources: DVF/Etalab (our calculation), MeilleursAgents estimates dated 1 October 2026 (Valbonne, Mougins, Biot, Grasse) and 1 September 2026 (Opio, Le Rouret).

We need to be careful here. The two columns do not measure the same thing. A median of completed sales weights the houses that actually changed hands, which skew to smaller, renovated, well-located properties that carry a higher price per m². An estimator tries to price the typical house across the whole commune, including tired ones. The dates also differ by up to a year. Part of the gap is definition, not market.

Even so, the direction is consistent enough to act on. In five of six towns, buyers who actually completed paid more per m² than an online estimate would have led them to expect. The Grasse gap is the widest, and it tells us that Grasse houses worth buying (renovated, with outdoor space, in Plan de Grasse or the Saint-Antoine sector) trade well above the commune-wide estimate.

If you are selling, the lesson is to ask your agent for sold comparables from the last 12 months, not for the figure on a portal. If you are buying, the lesson is to budget above the estimator for a good house in a sought-after sector, and to be sceptical of anyone who says the estimate is a ceiling.

The apartment picture is quieter and more uneven. The volumes are concentrated in two places, Grasse and the Sophia Antipolis corridor, so the other communes give us thin samples.

Source: DVF via Etalab geo-dvf, our calculation. Opio is excluded: only 2 apartment sales a year. Samples below 20 sales are indicative only.

Three towns carry real weight. Grasse recorded 606 apartment sales in 2025 and the median moved up 5.4% to €3,103 per m². That makes Grasse the volume market of the group by a wide margin, and a rising one. Mougins, with 167 sales, slipped 1.7%. Valbonne, with 84 sales, rose 6.3%, which fits the steady rental demand from Sophia Antipolis employees around Garbejaire and Haut-Sartoux.

Ignore the swings in Roquefort-les-Pins, Châteauneuf-de-Grasse and Le Rouret. With 10 or 11 sales each, a handful of unusual units, such as a new-build duplex or a very small studio, can produce a double-digit move without any change in the market. We report them for completeness and we would not base a decision on them.

The useful lesson on apartments is the gap with houses. In Valbonne a 2025 house sold at a median €6,781 per m² and an apartment at €4,557, a house premium of about 49%. In Mougins the premium is about 57%. In Grasse it is about 57% as well. A house with garden costs far more per m² than an apartment everywhere in the hinterland, and the premium is stable. Buyers who want the cheapest entry should look at Grasse and Valbonne apartments, and buyers who want a lasting asset usually end up at a house.

A price per m² is a convenient yardstick, but nobody pays a yardstick. Buyers pay a ticket, and the median ticket tells you which budget bracket a town actually serves.

Source: DVF via Etalab geo-dvf, our calculation. Median price of single-house sales.

The most useful reading is the gap between price per m² and ticket. Mougins has the highest price per m² (€7,354) but a median house ticket of €844,260, below Roquefort-les-Pins (€896,533) and Opio (€873,604). The reason is surface. Mougins houses sold in 2025 were smaller on average, so a high rate per m² sits on a modest floor area. Roquefort-les-Pins and Opio deliver more house, and more plot, for the money.

That is the sort of detail that changes a search. A buyer with €850,000 who fixates on Mougins will find compact villas and village houses. The same buyer in Roquefort-les-Pins, the horse country of the hinterland, or in Opio near the golf course, will find larger houses on bigger plots. Neither is better. They are different products.

Châteauneuf-de-Grasse is the one to read with caution. Its 2024 median of €1,110,000 fell to €915,150 in 2025 while price per m² rose, which means the mix shifted toward smaller houses. With 28 sales a year, that is a mix effect and not a price drop.

The ticket is also where rates bite. A one-point change in the mortgage rate adds about €320 a month to the payment on a €600,000 loan over 20 years, and that is what we turn to next.

Put the three tables together and four patterns emerge. We give our honest read on each.

Mougins and Valbonne repriced upward. House prices per m² rose 7.6% and 6.9% on robust samples of 162 and 75 sales. These are the two communes most tied to Sophia Antipolis and to the Cannes and Antibes access roads, with the A8 junctions at Cannes-Mougins and Antibes a short drive away. They also host the best-known international schooling, with the Centre International de Valbonne (CIV) and the Mougins School. School-driven demand is price-inelastic, and 2025 shows it.

Opio and Biot held. Opio is flat at about €7,080 per m² and Biot is up a modest 4.3%. Both are mature markets with limited supply. Opio has almost no apartments (2 sales a year), so its market is entirely houses and plots, which makes the median volatile on 33 sales. We would expect Opio to follow Mougins if the rate climb does not bite.

Grasse stayed cheap, and that is the story. The 2025 Grasse house median of €4,862 is barely above its 2024 level, and the median ticket of €447,000 is the lowest in the group by €150,000. Grasse is where a budget of €450,000 still buys a house with a garden, but the road and the commute matter. The Grasse sectors that hold value are the ones with easy access to the RD 6085 and to the Grasse-Sophia corridor, such as Plan de Grasse and Saint-Antoine.

Le Rouret fell, and we think the number overstates it. A 10.6% drop in median price per m² on 44 sales would be alarming if it described the whole village. It does not. Le Rouret's 2024 sample had more renovated, smaller houses, and 2025 had more larger houses on land. The median ticket fell from €695,000 to €595,000, which tells you the mix moved toward cheaper deals. Our read is that Le Rouret softened a little but that the headline exaggerates it. Check the sectors before you panic, especially around the village centre and the.

The common thread is that the hinterland is not one market. A buyer who treats Mougins, Opio and Grasse as interchangeable will misjudge value by tens of thousands of euros.

The 2025 sold prices describe a market that has already moved on. Three things changed in autumn 2026, and each affects what you will pay or receive.

Mortgage rates rose again. Pretto's October 2026 analysis puts the average 20-year rate at 3.66%, up from 3.17% in the first quarter, with the 15-year at 3.50% and the 25-year at 3.75%. October alone added about 0.12 points on 20 years. On a €600,000 loan over 20 years, the move from 3.17% to 3.66% adds about €150 a month. A further full point would add roughly €320 more. Many hinterland buyers are cash-rich or have large deposits, so rates reshape the market at the edges, not at the core. The edge, though, is where first-time hinterland buyers and Sophia Antipolis employees sit, and that is the demand behind the Valbonne and Grasse apartment numbers.

DVF now covers the first half of 2026. The October 2026 release added sales from 1 January to 30 June 2026 and corrected 2025. For the hinterland that is the first official read on how the market behaved after the first rate increases. We will update our medians the moment the commune files appear. Until then, anyone quoting "2026 sold prices" for a specific village is almost certainly quoting an estimate.

The tax rules did not shift on second homes. A proposal to shorten the income-tax exemption on capital gains for secondary residences from 22 to 17 years circulated during the 2026 finance bill debate. According to an analysis published by Equipatrimoine and updated on 25 September 2026, the amendment was not retained in the final text. The exemption from income tax therefore remains 22 years, and social contributions stay exempt after 30 years. If you own a villa as a second home and are weighing a sale, the clock has not been shortened, so check your own acquisition date with a notaire before you assume anything. Our capital gains guide explains the mechanics.

The Chambre des Notaires 06 reported on 13 April 2026 that existing-property prices in the Alpes-Maritimes rose 2.4% year on year in the first quarter, which it called a "progression maîtrisée". That is a department-wide figure. Our DVF medians show the hinterland moving faster than that in Mougins and Valbonne and slower in Grasse and Opio.

Data is only useful if it changes what you do. Here is how we would use these numbers, as a buyer and as a seller.

Start from sold comparables, not from the commune average. A commune median is the middle of a very wide range. Within Mougins, a house near the village centre, one in the Notre-Dame-de-Vie sector and one beside the golf course can sit at very different prices per m². Ask your agent for completed sales of the last 12 months within a kilometre, with surface, plot size and condition. Public DVF lets you check the price and the date yourself, on the data.gouv.fr dataset or on the map tools built on it.

Adjust for what DVF cannot see. The register has no field for a view, a pool, a renovation, a south-facing terrace or road noise. A house with a pool and long-distance views commands a premium that no median captures, and a house needing a full renovation sits well under it. We covered the pool question in our pool resale value guide. Add or subtract based on the specific property, not the commune.

Read the plot, not just the house. Because DVF surface excludes land, a large plot is the quiet driver of the ticket. A 150 m² house on 4,000 m² in Roquefort-les-Pins or Opio is a different asset from a 150 m² villa on 900 m² in Mougins, even if the price per m² of house is similar. Also check the débroussaillement obligations that come with wooded plots, which our fire risk guide explains.

Negotiate from evidence. The estimators say houses in most towns are cheaper than recent sales prove. If an asking price sits above the sold median, you need a reason, such as a recent renovation or a plot size, for paying it. If it sits below, expect competition and move fast.

Sellers should not price off a portal. If your house is renovated and well placed, the 2025 sold medians suggest the estimator will undervalue you. Price from sold comparables and from condition. A valuation done properly is the first step, and our guide on how to value a hinterland home walks through it.

We will be direct about what we know and what we are guessing.

What we know: in 2025, house prices per m² rose between 4% and 8% in Mougins, Valbonne, Biot and Châteauneuf-de-Grasse, held in Opio and Grasse, and fell in Le Rouret. Sold prices ran above agency estimates in five of six towns we can compare. Rates have risen through 2026, with the 20-year average at 3.66% in October. The capital gains rules for second homes are unchanged.

What we are guessing: the first-half 2026 DVF will probably show the 2025 gains slowing in Mougins and Valbonne, because the rate increase arrived while buyers were negotiating. We think volumes matter more than prices in the next release. If sales counts fell while medians held, that would confirm what agents tell us, that sellers are keeping prices and waiting for buyers rather than cutting. If medians slipped, the rate story is biting harder than we think.

Our advice for the winter months is practical. Buyers with cash or large deposits are in a good position. Autumn and winter see fewer viewings and more room to negotiate, and sellers who listed in spring and did not sell are now more flexible. We wrote about that in our off-season guide. Buyers who need a mortgage should lock a rate offer early, because October's grids went up again and the direction is not in your favour. Sellers of well-located renovated houses in Mougins, Valbonne and Opio can hold their price, and sellers of unrenovated stock in Le Rouret or Grasse should price to the sold evidence and not to hope.

Finally, watch two dates. The first is the arrival of first-half 2026 commune files in the open DVF mirrors, when we will update these medians. The second is spring 2027, when the next DVF release will cover the second half of 2026 and tell us whether the autumn rate rise changed behaviour. Until then, a house is worth what a well-informed buyer will pay for it, and the register of what buyers actually paid is the best evidence we have.