Estate agency on the French Riviera

Question 1

In which Riviera communes does Homebooker operate?

Accepted Answer

Nine, grouped into two very different sets. Six are in the Var and belong to the intercommunal body of the gulf of Saint-Tropez, created in 2012, which brings twelve together: Saint-Tropez, Ramatuelle, Gassin, Grimaud, Sainte-Maxime and La Croix-Valmer. None is a city, all border the same gulf, and they lie within half an hour of one another. Three are in the Alpes-Maritimes and have almost nothing in common: Cannes and Antibes are cities of tens of thousands of residents; Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat is a peninsula with 1,531 residents at the 2023 census. Communes absent from that list are not presented as served.

Question 2

Do the Var and the Alpes-Maritimes form two separate markets?

Accepted Answer

Yes, and the number of annual transactions is enough to show it. On sales recorded in 2025, Cannes counts 2,513 and Antibes 2,120. These are urban markets, deep ones, where something is always for sale and where a poorly placed property still finds a buyer. Saint-Tropez counts 195, Ramatuelle 73, Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat 49: these are narrow markets, where supply is counted and waiting is the rule. A buyer therefore does not work the same way depending on which side he is searching. In a city he compares; in a commune where a few dozen sales close a year he positions himself and waits. It is the first thing to grasp before setting a timetable.

Question 3

Does a villa let for the same number of weeks everywhere?

Accepted Answer

No, and the gap comes down to what happens around the house once the season ends. In the gulf, demand concentrates on summer. A house fills a high number of weeks across a short window, then receives nothing: the villages empty, the shops cut back, and nobody comes to spend a week in November in a property isolated among the vines. In Cannes and Antibes the city keeps working. Conferences, festivals, business stays and a mild late season produce spread-out demand, weaker at the peak but present across a far greater part of the year. An owner after rental yield therefore does not pick the same side of the coast as one after eight summer weeks at full rate.

Question 4

How long does a search take, depending on where?

Accepted Answer

From a few weeks to several years, and the budget has nothing to do with it. What governs the timescale is how many properties change hands each year in the commune aimed at. Where more than two thousand sell, a buyer sees several matching his brief within the quarter, and chooses. Where a few dozen sell, he may see none across twelve months. That reality calls for two opposite behaviours. On a deep market you take time to compare and you negotiate. On a narrow one you stand ready to decide within days, with financing already in place, because the property that suits will not come round again. Confusing the two methods is the commonest cause of failure.

Question 5

Do you need to know the coast before choosing an area?

Accepted Answer

Coming outside August completely changes the judgement you form. In August a commune in the gulf is judged on its queues and on a bustle that exists six weeks a year. In May the same commune shows what it is the rest of the time: the real distance to a bakery that is open, how much sun a terrace gets at the end of the day, whether a quarter is quiet or abandoned. Those ten months are what you buy. Hence the value of a reconnaissance rental outside high season, in two different areas. It commits to nothing and it settles questions no one-hour viewing settles. Many owners in the gulf bought where they had first rented, and rarely in the commune they named at the outset.

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Estate agency on the French Riviera