Thanks to very transparent planning rules, buying land for new-build is much easier in France than in many countries. As a result there is not a great difference in price between land which already has a planning permission and land on which building is normally permitted. If you want to buy land and you intend to build it is quite common to include a clause in the contract making this a condition of purchase.

In an effort to conserve the natural countryside and concentrate urban development France has significantly reduced, over the years, the amount of land available for new building - this is reflected in smaller plots for building and higher prices.

Gone are the days when you could buy a huge piece of land in the middle of nowhere and then build a little stone cottage. Today, in-fill development is the planning trend - even so, building plots are relatively large by non-French standards (2,500m2 is an average minimum requirement for a new-build, although this may sometimes be increased to as much as 5,000m2).