Dalila R. Says:
What is the cost of living in Sanary-sur-Mer?
IL France Correspondent Tuula Rampont Says:
Bonjour from France, Dalila, and thank you for your question.
Sanary-sur-Mer is very popular with the French, and other Europeans alike, so consequently has a higher cost of living than other places in Provence.
Although that doesn’t mean that it’s out-of-reach, especially considering that housing costs in France tend to be around 34% less than those in the United States.
The starting budget for Sanary will be around $2,800 a month for a couple. This will depend largely whether you plan to rent or buy. I would recommend renting, even short-term, before planning to purchase a property.
You can find a small, furnished, one-bedroom apartment in the center of town for €890 ($944) per month, and the rates go up from there. I know an American expat couple who moved from Arizona and have decided to rent long-term in Sanary for their retirement.
Depending on your budget, this could be a good strategy and also the most cost effective. Apartments and houses to purchase are more expensive than surrounding cities like Toulon, La Seyne-sûr-Mer, and Six-Fours-Les-Plages.
A 679-square-foot, two-bedroom, one-bath apartment near the port starts at €350,000 ($372,000). Prices go down if you look a bit further away from the center. The nearby beach town of Six-Fours-Les-Plages is only about a 10-minute walk away, and a lot of retirees choose to purchase there, and take the pedestrian pathway to Sanary.
If you’d like to buy a home in Sanary-sûr-Mer, a two-bedroom, one-bath will start at around €490,000 ($519,474).
For retirees, the town is a very safe bet as far as real estate is concerned, as properties continue to go up in value. Also, you’ll find that you save in other areas.
Sanary is very walkable, and you can navigate almost everything on foot—so having a car is optional. You’ll also benefit from France’s low-cost and excellent healthcare system.
Lastly, the town has a wealth of activities for retirees right in the city center. Language classes (French, Italian, and Spanish), dance and aerobics lessons, tennis, music, local folklore, and food and wine immersions are all possible at the local community center.
You can read another article I wrote about Sanary-sur-Mer on the IL website here.
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