Villas: luxe or high-end?

Luxury villas are nothing new; they were already being built in the early 19th century, for captains of industry and the stars of the day. But what is the shape of the market today?

"Buyers haven't always been keen on villas," says architect Jacques Patingre of Villas La Provençale and Villas Concept. It took a number of pioneers and currents – the Modern movement in the 1930s to '50s, with Le Corbusier's Villa Savoye and the Bauhaus architects – for this "architectural alternative" to become democratised. In Provence, given the scarcity of good building, land this type of building only happens in a few well-defined areas. For example, the Bouches-du-Rhône, where the market is pretty restricted, offers a few opportunities in Cassis, Eygalières and the Baux valley. It's the price of land that is decisive these days. French law imposed various new restrictions in the 2000s and that has driven land prices up considerably.

A new market
Jacques Pattingre illustrates the trend with a telling metaphor: "You can compare it to cars. There are now fewer people owning Aston Martins, Ferraris or Lamborghini but more and more owning Audis, Mercedes, BMWs and Range Rovers." This is the social category we're finding, not in the high luxury property market but buying high-end and often contemporary homes.
Architects and builders have adapted to meet this new type of demand. So one market has supplanted another, not in terms of quantity but for an equivalent in total sales. While the real luxury villa, designed by a big-name architect with outstanding materials and amenities, is becoming scarce, the high-end villa is on the up and up.

 The 2020 upturn
Promoter Fabrice Alimi (Groupe A & A – Novelis) points out that 2020 generated a leap in demand for high-end villas. The spread of teleworking led many city dwellers, from Paris and Lyon especially, to move to Provence, still in reach of their workplaces via high-speed rail. And it's often a profitable operation for them: a Parisian can get a fine villa in the Aix area for half the price they get selling their 150m2 apartment in the capital (where prices are over €10,000 per m2).

Changing demand
Architecturally, contemporary or Californian-style villas offer an alternative to regional or neo-regional architecture. But Provence is still quite an architecturally conservative region and many communes won't accept this kind of style. However, architecture is not all. Owners may be attracted initially by the look of a building and the beauty of its surroundings, but they now want more comfortable homes with spaces that allow for a healthier lifestyle. Projects often incorporate nudges or active design, new concepts that can be very inspirational.

By Maurice Gouiran