Case Study · Over Budget — a Haggle Job
Frôlois: A Two-Dwelling Stone Complex in the Auxois
The best-shaped find in a while: two joinable stone houses, a barn and a courtyard of outbuildings, on the sound low-radon ground of the Côte-d'Or. There's one catch, and it's the price — at about €45,000 it's over our cap. So this one only makes sense as a serious low offer on a long-empty, G-rated complex nobody's rushing to buy. Here's the full workup.
Frôlois, Côte-d'Or (21) · the Auxois, 15 min from Venarey-les-Laumes · ≈ 600 km / 6 hrs from Calais — far closer from the east · ≈ 300 km / 4.2 hrs from Bern
This sits in the same sound eastern belt as Gissey-sous-Flavigny, a few minutes away — but where Gissey is a single small house, this is a whole stone complex: two dwellings, a barn and a courtyard of outbuildings. That's the trade-off the whole page turns on — more building, more potential, but a price that's over the line.
📸 See the photos: view the full Frôlois listing on Properstar → (opens in a new tab)
This whole listing is a haggle job — a G-rated complex over the odds. The exact way to build a low offer that sticks.
Read the guide →✅ The Armchair ChecklistThe free routine this was judged against — run it on any place before you travel.
Run the checklist →💶 State Aid & GrantsA DPE G means the full energy works — what France pays back if you bring in certified trades.
See the grants →The listing, in full
The agent (Natimo) offers a stone property complex to renovate in a hamlet of the Auxois, 15 minutes from Venarey-les-Laumes. It's built around an enclosed courtyard with gardens and annexes — pitched for "a family project, a gîte or a charming second home." The main house has, on the ground floor, a dining room with a fireplace and insert, a kitchen to convert, a covered terrace and a bedroom; upstairs, a shower room with WC, a bedroom and a convertible attic. Adjoining it is a second stone house "without comfort," two rooms, to renovate completely — and the two can be joined into one large home. Outside: an enclosed courtyard, a barn, a small outbuilding with a garden behind, an old building and lean-to, and an additional garden in front. The agent notes the character details — stone fireplaces, old cheese-drying racks, Burgundy stone slabs. Price £38,586 (about €45,000). DPE G.
- Price£38,586 (≈ €45,000) — over our €40k cap; the whole case rests on a big offer
- Agency feesNot specified — confirm who pays (and whether they're inside the price)
- Rates (taxe foncière)Not stated — confirm with the agent
- LocationFrôlois (21150), Côte-d'Or, Bourgogne-Franche-Comté — the Auxois
- Drive from Calais≈ 600 km / ~6 hrs — much closer from the east/Switzerland
- Drive from Bern≈ 300 km / 4.2 hrs
- Nearest stationVenarey-les-Laumes (15 min) — TER on the Paris–Dijon line
- BuildingsTwo adjoining stone houses (joinable) + a barn + outbuildings
- Main house73 m² living area — dining room (fireplace/insert), kitchen to convert, covered terrace, 2 beds, shower room + WC, convertible attic
- Second houseTwo rooms, "without comfort" — a full renovation
- OutbuildingsBarn + small outbuilding + old building & lean-to, around an enclosed courtyard
- Land855 m² total — a front garden + a garden behind the outbuilding (split)
- Parking1 inside + 2 outside
- Build / materialsProper Burgundy stone — fireplaces, cheese racks, stone slabs ✓
- HeatingWood — an insert already in the dining room
- Water / electricity / drainageMain house serviced (it has a DPE); second house none — confirm all three, and the septic (SPANC)
- Energy rating (DPE)G (640) — the worst band, a full energy retrofit
- AgentAgence Natimo (Nathalie Lacombe), Boux-sous-Salmaise
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The good worth having
The exact shape the brief chases — twice over
Two stone dwellings you can join into one big house (or keep one as a gîte), a barn, and a courtyard of outbuildings to work from and grow into. That's more usable stone and more potential than almost anything else on the board — the reason it's worth a page despite the price.
Proper stone, with the character intact
Burgundy stone throughout, with the details that don't survive a cheap modernisation still in place: stone fireplaces, old cheese-drying racks, Burgundy floor slabs. And a wood insert already fitted — a head start on your first warm room.
Sound ground on the reachable east
The free checks (below) come back kind: radon low, clay not flagged, and only a light cat-nat record. And it's east — 15 minutes from a mainline TER station and a short hop from Switzerland, in the château-and-Alésia country of the Auxois.
The bad why the price has to move
It's over the cap — this only works on a knock-down
At about €45,000 it's over our €40k line, and it's a DPE G complex that's been sitting. Two dwellings' worth of renovation is a big, long project. The maths only stacks up if you buy it well under asking — see the haggling guide: a long-empty, worst-band, niche-market property is precisely where a firm low offer has room to land.
Two houses to renovate, not one
The main house is habitable-shaped, but the second house is "without comfort" — a bare shell — and a G rating means the whole energy fabric (insulation, windows, heating, airtightness) is to redo across both. Double the shell means double the materials and time; budget honestly before you fall for the cachet.
All the looks, but no real garden
Here's the honest disappointment: for a stone complex with this much cachet, there's no proper garden to match. The 855 m² is modest and split — a front garden and a patch behind the outbuilding — around an enclosed courtyard. It's a character property, not a place with land to grow into. And while the main house is serviced, confirm the water, the electrics (Consuel on any rewire) and the drainage — the second house has none.
DIY-er vs needs-a-builder the honest split
The usual rule: the fit-out is yours; the connections and anything structural or certified is where a pro is required — and the cost lands.
If you're hands-on — what you can do yourself
The strip-out and clearing; repointing and rendering the stone; internal walls, insulation, plasterboard and floors; joinery, windows and doors; second-fix plumbing; the kitchens and bathrooms; and running the wood heat. Starting in the habitable main house — with the insert already in — gives you a dry base while you tackle the second house and the barn. Do the graft yourself and you stay close to materials cost.
Where you'll need a pro (or a builder)
• Electrics — any new installation must pass Consuel before Enedis will energise it.
• Drainage / sanitation — an off-mains system to SPANC approval, by an approved installer.
• Roof / structure — across two houses and a barn, get a couvreur/charpentier and a maçon on anything that's moved or opened up.
• The energy retrofit — to shift a G rating and claim the grants, the insulation and heating work needs certified (RGE) trades.
Contract two dwellings out whole and you'll spend several times the purchase price — the case only closes if you're doing the work and buying the property cheap.
Clearing it out — the van, and the tip
A skip on site for a job this size
Two houses and a barn's worth of strip-out is serious weight. A T5-style van covers the fit-out runs, but for the demolition phase a hired skip (benne) in that enclosed courtyard is the sane option.
The déchèterie is residents-only
Waste here is run by the Communauté de communes des Terres d'Auxois (déchèteries at Venarey-les-Laumes and Semur-en-Auxois). As at a British tip, you need a justificatif de domicile and often a badge — a UK- or Swiss-plated van with no French address won't get in. Until you've a local address, budget a private skip.
The ground check
The routine that killed Thollet — Géorisques, run on the commune (INSEE 21288).
⚠️ These ground figures (flood, subsidence, radon) are official records for the commune — real, but commune-wide, not proof for this exact plot. Check it yourself: official Géorisques risk report (ERRIAL) → — enter the property address.
Radon low, clay not flagged
Radon comes back potential class 1 of 3 — the low band, and the shrink-swell clay layer isn't mapped as a hazard at this point. The commune's cat-nat record is light: two drought and two flood/mud-flow declarations over the decades — a fraction of the repeat-subsidence pattern that sinks the western clay villages.
⚠️ Still check the plot
"Not flagged" at commune level isn't the same as proven on the plot — pin the exact address on the map and read the ground there before an offer. Two flood declarations is low, but confirm the courtyard and gardens drain and sit clear of any watercourse.
The score
Carried by proper stone, two dwellings and a barn on sound eastern ground; held back almost entirely by the price and the G rating. That's the key point: even at asking it scores near the top of the board — the stone, the two dwellings, the barn and the wood heat carry it, with the over-cap price the one real drag. Knock the price down and it's unarguably top-tier. It sits high on the rankings, flagged as the haggle play it is.
The verdict
Still watching — the best shape on the board, if the number moves. Two joinable stone houses, a barn and outbuildings on sound low-radon ground, in the reachable Auxois — that's the brief at its fullest. The block is the ~€45k asking and the DPE G, and those are exactly the levers a buyer can pull: a long-empty, worst-band, niche complex is where a serious low offer has the most room. Work out your walk-away number from the two-dwelling renovation cost, then offer hard. Next step is the exact address, an address-level ground read, eyes on both roofs, and a number built on the state of it — not the asking price. Could you run it partly off-grid? Easily.
How we judge every place
Same free routine, every time — and the same honesty about price: a good shape at the wrong number is a haggle, not a pass.
See the full rankings →