How to find a home worth buying in Bordeaux: town price first

Can a foreigner buy property in Bordeaux?

Yes. No French restriction on foreigners or non-residents buying residential property was found. A foreign buyer owns directly, on the same terms as a French buyer. What changes the outcome is personal: nationality, residence and matrimonial regime affect how the home is held, taxed and passed on, and the notaire examines them at purchase. Buying gives no residence permit.

Ask the notaire early how your marital regime and home-country rules affect the way the title should be held. Rules in full: buying property in France as a foreigner. Hiring someone to search for you: a buyer's agent in France.

What do Bordeaux apartments actually sell for per m²?

EUR 4,120 per m² was the median apartment sale in the city of Bordeaux in 2025, from 3,404 sales in DVF, the tax administration's record of every registered sale. The middle half sat between EUR 3,462 and EUR 4,874. The suburbs run from EUR 2,449 in Lormont to EUR 3,900 in Talence.

Sale prices, not asking prices: sales only, one dwelling per deed, price divided by the built surface, towns with at least 30 sales. To check a listing, divide its price by its surface and compare with its town's middle half; listings quote the Carrez surface, which can make an attic flat look dearer. Method and Lyon alongside: Lyon and Bordeaux price per m².

What do houses cost on the Arcachon Bay?

More than the city, and spread widely. Houses sold for a median of EUR 8,646 per m² of living space in Lège-Cap-Ferret in 2025, with a middle half from EUR 5,141 to EUR 14,852, and EUR 8,351 in Arcachon. La Teste-de-Buch, Andernos-les-Bains and Gujan-Mestras sat between EUR 4,449 and EUR 4,959.

A house's price includes its land, so its price per m² of living space is not comparable with an apartment's. Ask for the plot size and the habitable surface separately. With a middle half as wide as Lège-Cap-Ferret's, the town median tells you little about one house; the comparison has to be with similar houses nearby.

What does it cost to buy a home in Bordeaux?

On a resale, mostly tax. The Gironde applies the 5.00% departmental rate, so transfer duty totals about 6.32% for deeds signed from 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2028. Add the 0.10% security contribution and the notaire's regulated fee plus 20% VAT. Notaire costs are commonly quoted at 7% to 8% on resales and 2% to 3% on new builds, where 20% VAT sits inside the price.

The notaire's fee scale, excluding VAT, falls to 0.799% on the part of the price above EUR 60,000. A notaire may offer a discount of up to 20% on the fee for the part above EUR 100,000, as reported. Every line: France property buying costs.

How do estate agents in Bordeaux charge?

Freely, but in the open. French law does not cap the fee. The agency must display its maximum fees including tax, every sale advert must say who pays, and when the buyer pays, the fee is shown as a percentage of the price. No money may be demanded before the sale is concluded; the commission is paid after the final deed.

The posted scale is a ceiling, so you can negotiate below it. Agents hold a carte professionnelle from the chamber of commerce and industry and show its number on every document; check it against the CCI register. Details: France real estate agent fees.

What are the steps to buy a home in Bordeaux?

Sign a pre-contract, a compromis de vente or a promesse unilatérale, with the seller's diagnostics file attached, including the DPE energy rating. Wait out the 10-day cooling-off period a private buyer has. A deposit of around 5% to 10% is held in escrow, usually at the notaire. Then sign the acte authentique, which the notaire publishes in the land register.

If you borrow, the pre-contract normally carries a loan condition of at least one month. Only a notarial deed can be published, and publication is what makes the transfer enforceable against third parties. Detail: the acte authentique explained.

Can you let a Bordeaux property?

Long term, yes, under rent control: Bordeaux is on the official list, so the base rent may not exceed the local reference ceiling plus its allowed margin, and the scheme is an experiment whose extension was not confirmed. Homes rated G can no longer be let long term. Short term, a furnished tourist let must be declared to the mairie and show its registration number.

A main residence can be let to tourists for 90 to 120 days a year depending on the commune. From 2025 income, an unclassified tourist let gets only a 30% flat allowance, up to EUR 15,000 of receipts. Global Property Guide puts Bordeaux's average gross yield at 4.46% for Q2 2026, from asking data; it is the publisher's figure, not Brinkman Data's. Detail: France rental yield guide.

Agent, portals or independent research in Bordeaux?

Each does a different job. The portals show asking prices. A licensed agent finds homes, books viewings and negotiates; a buyer's agent you hire searches for you. The notaire drafts the deed and checks the title. Brinkman Data decides which home is worth buying: every listing in your towns and budget, each checked against comparable sales, the five worth buying and the spreadsheet, for $499.

Brinkman Data is not an agent, takes no commission and is paid only by the buyer. Every report is built fresh on the homes for sale that week. See a real report, the comparison on how to find a property to buy abroad, and what an independent property analyst does. Also in France: how to find an apartment to buy in Lyon.

Header photo: P. Hughes, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. All credits: image credits.