You are planning a purchase, preparing to sell your house or need to declare a value for an inheritance in France, and you first want an idea of the prices being paid in your commune (the French municipality). Several public or free sources now make that possible. This article reviews them, explains what each one brings and where what an average price can say about your property stops.
The State’s data: DVF
Since 2019, the French tax administration has made freely available the property values declared on sales over the last five years (Book of Tax Procedures, article L. 112 A). This file, known as Demandes de valeurs foncières or DVF, can be consulted on a public mapping application, parcel by parcel: date of sale, price, type of property, built area, land area.
DVF changed the way many professionals work. Before its publication, notaires (French civil-law notaries) had their own database of references; everyone else had to rely on their knowledge of the area, follow properties for sale and sold, and gather information locally. Today, anyone can quickly form a view of a market from actual sales, which is the basis of the comparison method, the reference approach for determining market value (Charte de l’expertise en évaluation immobilière, the French property valuation charter, 6th edition, November 2025, Title III, chapter 2, § 2.1).
The file has its limits: it does not describe the condition of the property, does not distinguish a renovated house from one needing work, and does not allow searching by address. You have to zoom in on the map or know the cadastral reference.
DVF repackaged by third-party sites
Several sites, including that of a network of notarial property listings, take up the DVF data with an address search and a more readable map. To sweep quickly along a coastline and spot price levels town by town, this is often more convenient than the original application. The data are the same; only the presentation changes.
Automatic online estimators
Many agencies and portals offer a free automatic estimate. The principle is simple: you enter the address, the floor area, the number of rooms and the condition, and a statistical model returns a range.
These tools give a good first approximation. In 2020 I tested the one on a private-sales listings site on a client’s house: the “fully renovated” option matched the situation exactly, and the range obtained was consistent with the sale price. That house sold for around €249,000 including agency fees, after a first listing at €270,000 that drew no response for a month. Revising the price after testing the market is the right attitude.
The limit lies in what the tool cannot see. It assumes the seller knows the exact floor area and describes the property objectively. Yet most properties are in an intermediate condition, and some, particularly in inheritances, need major works. The Charter is clear on this point: a fully automated valuation model, without the intervention or validation of a qualified valuer, cannot produce a valuation that complies with its principles; its use by the expert must go hand in hand with a critical approach (Title I, § 6.2). The tool roughs out, the human refines.
A professional who visits the property assesses its actual condition, how well it matches what buyers are currently looking for, and generally proposes a range: an average market value, a defensive value, and an upper range if the market is buoyant.
The notaires’ price map for comparing towns
The barometer published by the notaires presents, as a map, median prices and the number of transactions per commune. It is useful for a newcomer looking for the area where a given budget is realistic, or for comparing two neighbouring towns.
Two readings deserve attention. A commune appears greyed out when few transactions are recorded there: a property will be illiquid there, which you should know before buying, unless you are looking at the long term. Conversely, a commune where few people sell but demand is strong, such as MONTGERMONT north of RENNES when I wrote the first version of this article, sees a reasonably priced property find a buyer quickly.
Public data on data.gouv.fr
More and more public bodies publish property data as open data. This article began, in 2020, with a spreadsheet file on the new-build housing market around RENNES. Isolating the four developments planned at VEZIN-LE-COQUET and taking the lowest prices of each, the average price came out at €2,351 per m². That figure is dated and serves only as an illustration: the point is to show that with a spreadsheet, a few lines of public data are enough to put an order of magnitude on an objective footing.
From average price to the value of your property
An average price per m² describes a market, not a property. Between two houses of the same size in the same street, condition, aspect, garden, layout, energy performance or an easement can create differences of 20 % to 30 %. The comparison method consists precisely in starting from recent transactions on similar properties and adjusting the observed prices for the differences with the property being valued (Charter, Title III, § 2.1.1). Transaction prices are the preferred reference; asking prices, which only reflect sellers’ expectations, may be used with caution (§ 2.1.2).
Three uses can therefore be distinguished:
- for a purchase, DVF and the price map are enough to frame a budget and check that a listing is in line with the market;
- for a sale, the online estimator, then the opinion of a professional who visits, allow a realistic starting price to be set;
- for an inheritance declaration, a partition or a dispute, a valuation report with an inspection, detailed references and explicit calculations is the document that can be produced and debated, because it justifies and demonstrates the value instead of asserting it (Charter, Title I, § 1.1).
The growth of public data is good news: it is better to argue over figures than over opinions.
Further reading
The full method, from collecting references to the conclusion, is described on the Market value page. On the same theme: as a seller, know the value and the floor area of your property and the link between energy rating and prices.
What next
Do you need a value that will stand up before a notaire, a judge or the tax authorities?
Inheritance, divorce, gift, tax audit, guardianship: I tell you which report you need, in what timeframe and at what price.
Free quote, by email or by phone. No commitment before the quote is accepted. Fees are never linked to the value of the property (Charte de l’expertise, Title I, §2.1).
