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Best places to retire to in France ranked in new study
Property prices, healthcare and life expectancy are some of the criteria featured in the ranking
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Brittany has been named the best region in France for retirement, based on a new study comparing France’s regions.
The region’s success comes a few months after one of its communes, Vannes, in Morbihan, was ranked first in the ‘dream places to live’ in France.
This time the whole region emerged as the winner, scoring 73.9 out of 100.
The study was done by the comparison website BrokerChooser using data from INSEE, France’s national institute of statistics, and compared France’s 13 regions using six criteria: property prices; access to healthcare; green spaces; the proportion of retirees; demographic ageing, and life expectancy after 60.
What helped Brittany into first place was relatively affordable property and a high proportion of green municipalities.
The median property price was €34,000 per room, less than half the €72,000 recorded in Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur (PACA), which came second in the rankings.
The region also had the highest proportion of municipalities with at least three ‘flower’ awards for their green spaces at 49.2%. The Villes et Villages Fleuris label awards communes between one and four flowers based on the quality of their green spaces and efforts to improve their environment.
Despite its high property prices though, PACA ranked second with a score of 67.1. It performed particularly well for healthcare, with its 412 healthcare professionals per 100,000 inhabitants the highest proportion in the study.
People aged 60 in the region could also expect to live for another 26.3 years on average.
Nouvelle-Aquitaine completed the top three, with a score of 64.9, followed by Corsica and Bourgogne-Franche-Comté.
The region had the second-highest demographic ageing index in the ranking, at 117.9, behind Corsica. This compares the number of people aged 65 and over with the number of people under 20.
The region also had relatively affordable property, with a median price of €38,000 per room. This was almost half the price recorded in PACA and about 43% lower than in Île-de-France.
The best regions of France for retirees
| Ranking | Region | Share of retirees (%) | Population ageing index | Median sale price per room (€) | Municipalities awarded “3 flowers” or more (%) | Life expectancy after age 60 (in years) | Healthcare professionals per 100,000 inhabitants | Overall score / 100 |
| 1 | Bretagne | 23.1 | 103.2 | 34,000 | 49.20% | 25.55 | 351 | 73.9 |
| 2 | Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur | 23 | 108.5 | 72,000 | 39.50% | 26.3 | 412 | 67.1 |
| 3 | Nouvelle-Aquitaine | 23.8 | 117.9 | 38,000 | 22.70% | 25.85 | 356 | 64.9 |
| 4 | Corse | 18.9 | 122.9 | 68,000 | 45.50% | 26.65 | 339 | 62.4 |
| 5 | Bourgogne-Franche-Comté | 24.7 | 108.3 | 29,000 | 28.50% | 25.2 | 308 | 61 |
| 6 | Occitanie | 21.9 | 106.7 | 42,000 | 25.90% | 26 | 350 | 58.9 |
| 7 | Pays de la Loire | 22.5 | 89.1 | 38,000 | 37.00% | 26.05 | 301 | 58.3 |
| 8 | Grand Est | 21.9 | 93.8 | 28,000 | 33.30% | 25.05 | 329 | 56.2 |
| 9 | Normandie | 23.5 | 96.6 | 35,000 | 34.70% | 25.1 | 304 | 55.8 |
| 10 | Centre-Val de Loire | 23.8 | 101.3 | 32,000 | 23.60% | 25.6 | 261 | 51 |
| 11 | Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes | 21.1 | 86.4 | 45,000 | 20.60% | 26.25 | 350 | 49.4 |
| 12 | Île-de-France | 16.1 | 60.9 | 67,000 | 44.20% | 26.8 | 391 | 46.7 |
| 13 | Hauts-de-France | 20.3 | 75.5 | 32,000 | 36.60% | 24.4 | 306 | 41.5 |
Île-de-France and Hauts-de-France at the bottom
Île-de-France came 12th, even though it managed to have the highest life expectancy in the study - a 60-year-old in the region could expect to live for another 26.8 years on average.
It also had the second-highest number of healthcare professionals, at 391 per 100,000 inhabitants.
However, property prices in the region were among the highest in the country, at €67,000 per room, while its demographic ageing index was the lowest of the regions studied.
Hauts-de-France came last, scoring 41.5. It recorded the lowest life expectancy after 60, at 24.4 years, although its median property price was relatively low at €32,000 per room.
Each of the six indicators was given equal weighting to produce the final score.
Heatwaves are impacting where people choose to live
This ranking also comes as real estate agents report that heatwaves are increasingly influencing where people choose to buy a home.
Joanna Leggett, marketing director at Leggett Immobilier, recently told The Connexion that she had noticed some clients looking for a permanent home reconsidering their plans to move to southern France because of rising temperatures.
She said Brittany and Normandy were becoming more of a draw due to their cooler temperatures, with Ms Leggett noting that Brittany was “extremely popular” for its coastline.
Some retirees who had previously moved south are considering relocating to areas such as the Brittany coast or coastal Charente-Maritime.
Eric Allouche, CEO of the ERA Immobilier France network, said he had noticed the same trend, with more people turning towards France’s northern coast.
