Small lakeside French hamlet to be sold at auction - starting price €450,000
The tourist site has a collection of 13 gîtes and a swimming pool
The site has lake views, 13 gites, communal eating and entertainment spaces, and an indoor pool
Agorastore.fr / Haut Limousin en Marche community
A tourist, lakeside ‘hamlet’ in west-central France will be sold at auction this month with a starting price of €450,000.
'Hameau de gîtes des Pouyades in Magnac-Laval' (Haute-Vienne, Nouvelle-Aquitaine), spans 9,528 m2 (with 1,054 m² of communal and accommodation space) and is part of the Haut Limousin en Marche community.
It was purpose-built to attract more tourism to the area and opened in 2007. It is located next to a fishing lake, has 13 gîtes, a covered swimming pool, a professional kitchen, and communal dining and entertainment spaces.
It is some 10 kilometers from the Le Dorat TER station, and around 50 kilometres away from Limoges airport.
The site had more than 9,000 overnight stays in 2024, has bookings in place for 2025, and pre-reservations for 2026.
Management challenges
Yet now, the hamlet is being sold via online auction (with the exception of the lake) as the community believes that the current management is too expensive and “not in the [communes’] general interest”.
“We are not parting with the family jewels; Les Pouyades will stay here,” said Christian Jacquier, vice-president of the community of communes of Haut Limousin en Marche, to France 3. “It would not be possible to relocate the tourist accommodation activity.
“But we need to ask ourselves the right questions…while the construction of this site to enhance the attractiveness of the region was entirely justified, the management of the site with public money does not seem obvious to me.”
He cited costs such as the initial investment, necessary renovations, the swimming pool, the large-capacity gîte and the reception hall; and the management demands of the site as “not the job” of the community.
“We are happy to have made these investments, but management is not our job,” he said.
Auction rules
The auction will begin on the Agorastore website from 13:00 on March 25, and ends on March 27 at 15:00.
The rules of the auction state that the site must be sold in its entirety (e.g. it is not possible to buy just one of the gites), and it must continue its current tourist role for at least 10 years, due to the site’s receipt of regional subsidies for this cause.
The auctioneer has said that several visits have already taken place and there are no shortage of candidates for the takeover.
