Case Study · Still in the Running
La Cellette: The £10k House on Sound Creuse Ground
The cheapest place on the whole search — and, on the free checks, the soundest ground of the lot. A brick-and-stone house with an adjoining barn, a garage and outbuildings on half an acre, for the price of a used car. Here's the full workup, warts and all.
La Cellette, Creuse (23) · northern Creuse, near Genouillac · ≈ 600 km / 6 hrs from Calais · ≈ 560 km / 6.4 hrs from Bern
We walked away from Thollet on the ground and kept Coubjours in the running after it passed the same checks. This one came through cleaner than either — so it earns the same full workup. For the instructive opposite, compare Aigurande just north in the Indre: cheaper-looking on services, but a clay-and-radon plan-around where this is clean.
📸 See the photos: view the full La Cellette listing on Properstar → (opens in a new tab)
The exact free routine that passed La Cellette — run it on any place before you travel.
Run the checklist →🔑 Haggling a Long-Empty WreckThe price has already been cut hard and the fees are on the seller — how to read that and make a low offer stick.
Read the guide →🌿 Creuse & Haute-Vienne guideWhy this belt keeps coming up green — cheap stone on sound granite ground, and the drive from Calais.
Read the guide →The listing, in full
The agent describes a country house in La Cellette (23350) in a peaceful, authentic rural setting: a 2,000 m² property with a 50 m² house to renovate completely, east-facing for good morning light, in a brick-and-stone façade with a rustic character. There's a courtyard at the front and a garden behind, an adjoining barn to restore, and a garage for parking. Inside, the ground floor holds three rooms and a shower area, with an attic above; separate, non-adjoining outbuildings offer further potential. The house has stood empty for several years and needs a complete renovation — water, electricity and sanitation are all connected but need redoing — though one gable is noted as sound and worth keeping. Sale price €12,000, agency fees paid by the seller.
- Price€12,000 (≈ £10,300) — cut ~43% from ~€21,000
- Agency feesPaid by the seller
- Rates (taxe foncière)Not stated — expect a low figure for a small rural ruin; confirm with the agent
- LocationLa Cellette (23350), northern Creuse, Nouvelle-Aquitaine — near Genouillac
- Drive from Calais≈ 600 km / ~6 hrs
- Drive from Bern≈ 560 km / 6.4 hrs
- House50 m², built 1900, brick-and-stone — ground floor + attic to convert
- RoomsThree rooms + a shower area on the ground floor; attic above
- Land2,000 m² (~½ acre) — courtyard front, garden back
- OutbuildingsAdjoining barn (to restore) + garage + non-adjoining outbuildings
- Build / materialsProper stone — brick-and-stone 1900 house + a stone barn, garage and outbuildings ✓
- Aspect / viewEast-facing, open countryside view
- WaterConnected — needs redoing
- ElectricityConnected — needs redoing
- Drainage / sanitationPresent — needs redoing (off-mains, SPANC)
- HeatingNone usable — to install (plan a wood burner)
- Energy rating (DPE)Not provided (normal for a ruin)
- ConditionEmpty several years, full renovation; one gable sound to keep
- Detached?Reads detached (own courtyard + garden) — confirm with the agent
- AgentSAFTI (Jean-Pascal Fokeer)
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The good worth having
The exact shape the brief asks for
House plus an adjoining barn, a garage and separate outbuildings, all on half an acre with its own courtyard and garden. That's a workshop, a dry store and real expansion potential — the outbuildings are where a small house grows into a liveable one.
The cheapest on the search — and the seller wants out
€12,000 with fees on the seller, already cut ~43% from around €21k. A motivated seller and a keen price is the ideal starting hand for a low offer.
Services already run to the plot
Water, electricity and drainage are all there — they need redoing, but the connections and routes exist. That's a real head start over a bare plot where you'd be paying to bring services in from scratch.
Sound ground, good light, a gable to keep
The free checks come back clean (below), it faces east with an open view, and the agent flags one gable as already sound — a small but genuine saving on a full re-build.
The bad what needs doing
It's a complete renovation, not a tidy-up
"Water, electricity and sanitation present but need redoing" means exactly that: budget for a full first-fix — new wiring, new plumbing, a new drainage system, new heating — not reusing what's there. Add roof checks, damp treatment, insulation, windows, floors, a kitchen and a bathroom. Every trade, once — though France's renovation grants can offset the energy parts if you bring in certified trades.
Small — the space is in the barn and attic
At 50 m² the house alone is one-bed-cottage sized. To live comfortably you're converting the attic and/or the barn — which is doable and cheap in shell terms, but it's work and cost on top, not a bonus.
Two things to confirm before a viewing
There's no DPE, so the real energy/condition picture only comes from a survey, and the listing never actually says detached — both are questions for SAFTI before you spend a day driving.
DIY-er vs needs-a-builder the honest split
Where the money goes depends almost entirely on which of these you are. The rule of thumb: you can do most of the fit-out yourself; the connections and anything structural or certified is where a professional is required — and where the cost lands.
If you're hands-on — what you can do yourself
Realistically self-done by a competent DIYer: the strip-out and clearing; internal stud walls, insulation, plasterboard and flooring; repointing, rendering, joinery and decorating; fitting windows and doors; second-fix plumbing; the kitchen and bathroom fit-out; and installing a wood burner (with a registered sweep to certify the flue). On a house this size that's the bulk of the labour — and labour is the bulk of a renovation bill. Do it yourself and the project stays close to materials cost.
Where you'll need a pro (or a builder)
Some of it isn't a choice, either for safety or because France requires a certificate:
• The electrical connection — to (re)energise via Enedis the installation must pass Consuel, which in practice means a registered electrician signs it off.
• Drainage / sanitation — an off-mains system must be designed and installed to SPANC approval by an approved installer; it's not a DIY sign-off.
• Roof structure — if the frame or covering has gone, that's a couvreur/charpentier job: heavy, safety-critical, worth doing right.
• Anything structural — new openings, lintels, a moving wall or underpinning needs a maçon and possibly an engineer.
• The water supply — reconnecting and certifying a potable feed.
Contract the whole job to a builder and a 50 m² full renovation can cost several times the purchase price — which is precisely why this project only makes sense if you're doing the graft yourself and buying in the few certified trades.
Where it sits
La Cellette is in northern Creuse, near Genouillac, in the quiet farmed country on the northern edge of the Massif Central. This is the same granite-and-gneiss basement that makes the wider Creuse and Haute-Vienne belt so reliable underfoot — hard rock rather than the shrink-swell clay of the western valleys. It's rolling, thinly-populated and cheap, and the drive is the kindest of our three case studies: ≈ 600 km / 6 hours from Calais, roughly the same as Thollet and well short of Coubjours' 800.
The ground check
The routine that killed Thollet — Géorisques, run on the commune (INSEE 23041).
⚠️ 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.
Clay: Faible — the low band
Shrink-swell clay comes back “Exposition faible” (low) — the sound-ground reading, the opposite of Thollet's Important. And the commune has no drought-subsidence declarations at all: its only two disaster records are the nationwide storms of December 1999 and November 1982, not the repeated clay-heave pattern that cracks cheap stone cottages. This is exactly the ground you want under a rubble-stone house.
⚠️ Plan for it: radon, moderate
Granite means radon, but here it's potential class 2 of 3 — moderate, a notch below the “high” band that covers the Limousin border. Radon is a natural radioactive gas that seeps up from the bedrock and can build up indoors; at this level it's a ventilate-and-check job, not a red flag — a well-aired under-floor void, a sealed ground floor, and a cheap test kit once you're in.
The score
The soundest ground on the board (clay faible, no subsidence) earns a full bonus here, and with a barn, a garage, outbuildings, 2,000 m² of land and a rock-bottom price it sits near the very top of the rankings — only Tramont's already-installed services beat it. The one thing it lacks is exactly that: the water, drainage and heat are all still to create.
The verdict
Still watching — a strong one. On the free checks this is the soundest ground and the lowest price we've logged: clay Faible, no subsidence history, moderate radon, a barn, a garage and outbuildings on half an acre, seller-paid fees, and a seller who has already cut ~43%. Against that, weigh the small footprint and the fact that every service needs redoing — this is a full renovation, not a tidy-up. Next step is the exact address to pin the plot's ground precisely, a confirmation that it's detached, and a low offer built on that price history.
How we judge every place
La Cellette passed the free ground check with room to spare; Thollet didn't. Same routine, every time, before a single mile.
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