Picture this: it's a Tuesday morning in July, the mimosa outside the south-facing terrace has already caught the first light, and the only sound competing with the cicadas is the distant clink of rigging from the sailboats in the Sainte-Maxime marina. You've walked back from the boulangerie on Avenue Charles de Gaulle with a paper bag of still-warm croissants, and the house—your house—sits quietly behind its gates on a two-thousand-square-metre plot while the rest of the Var coast is only just waking up.
That is the kind of morning this property was built for.
Set within a private and secure estate close to the town centre of Sainte-Maxime, this five-bedroom villa occupies one of those rare plots that feel genuinely spacious by Côte d'Azur standards. Two thousand square metres of landscaped grounds give you room to breathe—something increasingly hard to find at this price point along the Gulf of Saint-Tropez. The south-facing orientation means the sun tracks across the garden from early morning until it drops behind the Maures hills in the evening, and in a region that logs over three hundred days of sunshine a year, that detail matters more than almost anything else.
The villa currently runs as two separate apartments—a configuration that suits buyers who want rental flexibility from day one, or families who appreciate having genuinely independent spaces under one roof. Grandparents in one half, teenagers in the other. Guests who actually get privacy. It works. But the walls between the two units come down without drama, and the footprint of 180 square metres is more than workable as a single flowing home. A few targeted renovations would bring everything up to the standard you'd expect, nothing structural—think finishes and fixtures rather than foundations.
La Nartelle beach is within easy reach, and it is one of the better stretches along this coastline: shallow enough for children, long enough to find your own corner, without the shoulder-to-shoulder intensity of Saint-Tropez's Pampelonne. The seaside market along the Sainte-Maxime waterfront on Thursday and Sunday mornings is worth building your whole weekend around—local producers drive in from the Var hinterland with tapenade, lavender honey, goat's cheese wrapped in chestnut leaves, and wine from the Côtes de Provence appellations just forty minutes north. Buy enough for lunch, eat under the pergola, open something rosé and cold. That's the rhythm here.
Golf has long been part of the local fabric. Several courses sit within a short drive—most notably the Golf de Sainte-Maxime, which plays along the hills above town with views that make it genuinely difficult to focus on your swing. The estate's location puts you close enough that an early tee time before the heat builds is entirely practical.
For those who want to get on the water, the Port de Sainte-Maxime is walkable from the town centre. You can rent anything from a small motorboat to a skippered day-sail across to Saint-Tropez—twenty minutes by sea, a world away in atmosphere. The Tuesday market in Saint-Tropez's Place des Lices is a proper local institution, packed with Provençal fabrics, ceramics, and the kind of cheese selection that will ruin you for supermarkets forever.
Autumn is underrated on this coast. September and October bring cooler evenings, emptier roads, and a softness to the light that photographers travel specifically to capture. The wine harvest runs through September across the Var, and wineries like Château Minuty and Domaine Ramatuelle open their gates for tastings. The crowds have thinned, the sea is still warm enough for swimming, and the whole region shifts into a lower, more honest gear.
Sainte-Maxime itself is a year-round town, unlike some of its more seasonal neighbours. There's a real community here—schools, a market hall, proper restaurants that don't close in November. The ferry to Saint-Tropez runs regularly from the port, making it easy to enjoy the glamour next door without paying Saint-Tropez property prices.
For international buyers, France's property ownership framework is straightforward and well-established. Non-EU buyers face no special restrictions on residential purchases. The notaire handles title transfer and due diligence, and the process is transparent. The Var property market has held firm over the past decade, driven by chronic undersupply of well-located plots close to the Gulf. A property of this size, on this footprint, near La Nartelle, at this price represents genuine value against comparable listings between Fréjus and Cavalaire. Short-term rental demand along this coast runs high from June through September, so the dual-apartment layout carries real income potential if you choose to rent during weeks you're not in residence.
Getting here is simple. Toulon-Hyères Airport handles regional connections, and Nice Côte d'Azur—one of France's busiest international hubs—sits roughly an hour east along the A8. Direct flights arrive from London, Amsterdam, Brussels, Frankfurt, and Zurich. From Nice, the drive along the coast road through Fréjus and Saint-Aygulf takes you past the Estérel massif's red rock cliffs dropping straight into the sea—one of the genuinely arresting drives in southern France.
Key features at a glance:
- Five bedrooms across 180m² of living space
- Plot of over 2,000m² with mature landscaping
- South-facing aspect for maximum sun throughout the day
- Currently configured as two independent apartments — easily convertible to single dwelling
- Located within a private, gated and secure estate
- Close to La Nartelle beach, one of the Var's most accessible sandy stretches
- Short walk or drive to Sainte-Maxime town centre, port, and waterfront market
- Several golf courses within a few minutes' drive
- Strong short-term rental potential in peak summer season
- Good structural condition with minor cosmetic renovations recommended
- Year-round accessibility via Nice Côte d'Azur Airport (approx. 1 hour)
- Straightforward purchase process for international buyers under French property law
- Priced at €999,000 — competitive for this plot size and location within the Gulf of Saint-Tropez
This is not a property that needs a hard sell. The location does the work. What it needs is someone who can see past the current apartment layout to the single, generous family home—or the smartly managed rental asset—waiting on the other side of a renovation project that is genuinely more straightforward than most.
If you're seriously considering a vacation home on the Côte d'Azur, or a second home in Provence that earns its keep during the summer months, this villa deserves a visit in person. Contact the Homestra team today to arrange a private viewing—and to get honest, practical guidance on what ownership on this coast really looks like.
