Buying by département
The département is the right starting scale for a property search. BienCheck covers all 101 (mainland and overseas) with consolidated DVF prices, Géorisques risks and ADEME EPC data.
Why start with the département
The département is the most useful scale when you don't yet know exactly where to buy. Wide enough to reveal real market trends, small enough to stay relevant: a département usually has between 200,000 and 2 million people and a coherent local market.
Once you've picked a département, you naturally drill down to the towns that fit. That's the logic of BienCheck's pages: from département to city, then from average property to actual property via the BienCheck analysis.
How to read a département page
Each département page aggregates indicators from its towns: median price per sqm (houses and flats separately), 12-month trend, exposure to the main risks (flooding, clay shrinkage, seismic, radon, industrial sites) and EPC distribution from A to G.
You'll also find a ranking of the most viewed cities in that département, with a direct link to their dedicated pages. It's the fastest way to explore a territory you don't know commune by commune.
The département in France's administrative map
Created in 1790, France's 101 départements (96 in mainland, 5 overseas) remain a major administrative and statistical layer. Every département has a number (01 to 974), which appears in postcodes and number plates, and an associated INSEE code.
Most public property data (DVF, notary statistics, rent observatories) is first released at département level and then broken down by town. BienCheck mirrors that: when a town is too small for reliable stats, we use the département average as the benchmark.
How BienCheck uses département-level data
At département level, BienCheck consolidates DVF sales from the last 12 months (often tens of thousands of transactions) to produce a reliable median price, decile prices (P25, P75) and a smoothed trend. That baseline is then used to judge whether a given town is expensive or cheap in its département.
Risk exposure is aggregated by crossing the Géorisques zones with the commune polygons. EPC is consolidated from every diagnostic recorded in the département. When sub-territories are very contrasted (Var between coast and inland, Yvelines between inner suburbs and rural west), we flag it and point to the city pages.
No number is extrapolated. Every indicator shown is computed from real, dated, sourced transactions or diagnostics.
Browse every département
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BienCheck methodology
Our methodology rests on three principles: public sources, reproducible calculations, transparency about what's missing. Every dataset we use (DVF, ADEME, Géorisques, BAN) is freely accessible, and our calculations are described in the methodology pages.
We don't weight by commercial interest. No département and no city is pushed up for advertising reasons. The list of popular cities reflects the platform's real traffic.
Buyer questions
How many départements does BienCheck cover?
All 101 French départements: 96 in mainland France plus Guadeloupe, Martinique, French Guiana, Réunion and Mayotte. Each page aggregates its towns from the official sources.
How do I pick a département?
List your constraints (commute, family, climate, budget), then compare 3 to 5 départements on median price, trend and risk exposure. That filter usually narrows the search before you drill down to towns.
Which départements are the most expensive?
Paris (75), Hauts-de-Seine (92), Alpes-Maritimes (06), Yvelines (78) and Haute-Savoie (74) sit historically at the top. Pages show the live medians, which move each quarter.
And the most affordable?
Several rural départements in the Centre, Burgundy, Ardennes or Creuse show medians well below the national average. Watch the average EPC of the local stock though, often weaker.
Can I buy remotely thanks to BienCheck?
Département pages give you enough to shortlist without visiting. A physical visit is still essential, but you focus on 2 or 3 towns instead of 20.
Investor questions
Which départements offer high rental yield?
Départements with low purchase prices and tight rental markets show the best ratios on paper (Nord, Pas-de-Calais, parts of Aube or Vosges). But gross yield says nothing about charges, vacancy or EPC.
How do I gauge rental tension at département level?
Cross DVF prices, share of social housing, INSEE vacancy rate and observed rents. BienCheck département pages give prices and trend; rents come from the local observatories.
How do new EPC rules play out by département?
The older and less insulated the local stock (Limousin, Auvergne, parts of the North-East), the higher the share of F-G homes that need refurbishment, which weighs on a buy-to-let strategy.
Are overseas départements covered?
Yes. Guadeloupe, Martinique, French Guiana, Réunion and Mayotte have their pages, with local specifics: seismic risk (West Indies), cyclone exposure, markets quite different from mainland France.
Does the Premium report go down to the address?
Yes. The Premium report geocodes the address through the BAN and crosses every source around that property, not just at département level.
Owner questions
How do I position my property within its département?
The département page shows medians, your city page shows the local medians. If your estimated price per sqm sits clearly above the city median, you're at the top end of the département.
Why can a single département show very different prices?
A département like Var or Yvelines covers very contrasted markets (coast vs inland, inner vs outer suburbs). That's why you always need to drill down to the town before drawing conclusions.
Are risks uniform across a département?
Rarely. Clay shrinkage can cover 80% of a département but spare rocky zones; flood zones follow river valleys. Always check at town level, then at the address.
How often are département pages refreshed?
DVF refreshes with every DGFiP release (quarterly), ADEME continuously, Géorisques at least once a year. Every page shows its last actual update date.
Can I download the data for my own use?
For professional use, source datasets (DVF, ADEME, Géorisques, BAN) are open data. For personal use, the BienCheck Premium report is the simplest path: it consolidates everything around your address.
Quick glossary
- DVF
- France's open land-value database, published by the Ministry of Finance. Lists every property sale of the last 5 years with the real net-of-fees price.
- EPC (DPE)
- Energy Performance Certificate. A to G rating measuring a home's energy use and CO₂ emissions. Mandatory for any sale or rental.
- Clay shrinkage (RGA)
- Soil movement linked to wet/dry cycles in clay terrain. Can crack houses built on shallow foundations.
- INSEE code
- 5-character official code assigned by INSEE to every French municipality. Essential to join public datasets.
- ICPE
- Classified environmental site. Industrial installation subject to authorisation or declaration (quarries, factories, large farms).
Go further
Refine your search
Once the département is chosen, drill down to the city pages to compare, then run the BienCheck analysis on a specific property.