3-room with a 15 sqm terrace: a rare find in the 14th arrondissement

An interior designer had spent a year looking for a flat with a real terrace in southern Paris. The Home Select property hunter found a 58 sqm 3-room with a 15 sqm terrace on the top floor of an Art Deco building in the 14th arrondissement, through an off-market contact, and negotiated it down to 685,000 euros from the 720,000 asked.

Mission overview

• Property hunter: Home Select
• Area: Paris 14th arrondissement (Alésia - Montsouris)
• Property type: 3-room, 58 sqm + 15 sqm terrace, top floor
• Initial budget: 700,000 euros
• Asking price: 720,000 euros (off-market)
• Negotiated price: 685,000 euros (-4.9%)
• Search duration: 4 weeks (after 12 months of solo searching)
• Buyer profile: Single woman, 47, interior designer

Why did a 2-room in the 6th no longer suit this interior designer?

Because it had no balcony or terrace, while she regularly saw clients at home. Nathalie, 47, wanted a bright flat with genuine, usable outdoor space, ideally a terrace of more than 10 sqm, in southern Paris (the 5th, 6th, 13th or 14th), on a budget of 700,000 euros.

After a year searching on her own and more than 30 viewings, she had found only flats with small 3-to-4 sqm balconies or north-facing terraces. The rare flats that met her criteria sold before she could make an offer.

Where do you find a terrace over 10 sqm in southern Paris?

Away from the listings: flats with large terraces make up less than 2% of Parisian supply and often sell before publication. So the hunter drew on a network of building caretakers in the Alésia, Denfert-Rochereau and Montsouris areas, and approached managing agents overseeing Art Deco buildings and 1930s blocks, whose top floors sometimes have terraces created during roof conversions.

Close monitoring of standard listings turned up three candidates in two weeks, all set aside after analysis: a terrace facing a noisy street, a building in financial difficulty, imminent roof works.

Which top floor with a 15 sqm terrace was found on rue d’Alésia?

A 58 sqm flat on the 6th and top floor of a 1932 Art Deco building, whose south-west-facing 15 sqm terrace opens over the rooftops of the 14th with the Montparnasse Tower beyond. It came through a building caretaker contacted in the very first week, for an owner thinking of selling without going through an agency: the private viewing was arranged within 48 hours.

Its 58 sqm of living space comprised a 24 sqm living room with east-west dual aspect, two bedrooms (11 and 9 sqm), an open kitchen and a bathroom. The terrace is reached from the living room.

How do you weight a 15 sqm terrace to negotiate?

At 50% of its surface: 58 sqm of living space plus 7.5 weighted sqm of terrace gives 65.5 sqm, which turns the 720,000 euros asked (12,414 euros per sqm excluding the terrace) into 10,992 euros per weighted sqm. On that basis, with top floors with terraces in the Alésia area trading between 10,200 and 11,000 euros per weighted sqm, the asking price sat at the top of the range.

The seller had set that price on the advice of an estate agent friend. The lack of a lift (a 6th-floor walk-up) was a further, clear obstacle to resale. The offer of 680,000 euros was countered at 690,000, and the parties settled at 685,000 euros, a 35,000 euro reduction (4.9%) and a price under Nathalie’s initial budget.

How do you buy on the Parisian terrace micro-market?

Rare properties are found outside the usual channels. This flat never appeared on a property portal. It was the property hunter’s ground-level network, here a building caretaker, that gave exclusive access. Our article on accessing the off-market explains how this works.

A year alone against four weeks with a property hunter. This case shows the gap in efficiency when the brief is very specific. In a micro-market like Parisian terraces, supply is so thin that only a proactive, multi-channel approach delivers. The 14th arrondissement page sets out the particulars of the area.

Terrace weighting is a negotiating tool. Understanding how the market values outdoor space lets you frame a well-argued offer. A property hunter knows these conventions and uses them to reach a price in line with recent sales. Our guide to viewing a flat in Paris includes checkpoints specific to terraces.

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Looking for a flat with a terrace in Paris? Describe your project: your property hunter will draw on their network to reach rare properties before they hit the market.