The South of France remains irresistible because it offers not one lifestyle, but several: Riviera glamour, Provençal calm, and coastal villages that feel like a permanent holiday. For city life with culture and convenience, Nice and Aix-en-Provence are enduring favourites; for chic seaside living, Antibes, Villefranche-sur-Mer, Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, Cassis, Bandol and Saint-Tropez are hard to beat; and for postcard-perfect village beauty, the hilltop classics such as Saint-Paul-de-Vence, Mougins, Grasse, and the Luberon’s Gordes, Lourmarin, Ménerbes, Bonnieux and Roussillon continue to define the fantasy. Add in atmospheric, liveable choices like Uzès, Montpellier, Sète, Hyères, Saint-Rémy-de-Provence and L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, and you begin to see why buyers return again and again—this is a region designed for light, long lunches, markets, and a life lived outdoors.
But buying here as a foreigner means understanding the tax and cost landscape from the start, not as an afterthought: expect meaningful purchase costs (often called “notaire’s fees”), ongoing local property taxes, and potential exposure to French rules on rental income, capital gains when you sell, and even inheritance planning if you hold French real estate long-term. Higher-value buyers should also be aware of France’s real-estate wealth tax (IFI), which can apply once French property holdings pass key thresholds. Because in the South of France, the right home doesn’t just hold your summers — it becomes the place you return to, year after year, as if it had been waiting for you all along.
