Contemporary single-storey villa in pale stone and white render, with tiled roofs and glazing that opens onto a terrace with sun loungers and an infinity pool.

RivageRoquefort-les-PinsBuilt by Midi Mas

Building plots in Cannes · From Cannes to Monaco

Before you buy a plot in Cannes, find out which villa it will allow.

A listing shows a surface area, a view, sometimes a permit. It rarely tells you what you will see from your living room, what the slope will demand, or what the tall pines and the town’s rules will let you build. Come with us to visit the plots we present, and see them through a builder’s eye: we have been designing and building villas since 1993.

Visit plots with us See the plots

More than 400 completed villas

Our building sites are open to visitors: villas at every stage of construction, from structural work to finishes.

What surface area does not tell you

Three plots, almost the same size. Three houses with nothing in common.

Take three plots we have presented in Mougins. Their listings use almost the same words: sought-after area, peace and quiet, easy access. Seven square metres separate the first two. Yet here is what has been approved or deemed feasible on each:

  • Plot 4,270 m2 Permit granted A 345 m2 villa

    With a pool.

  • Plot 4,277 m2 Feasible A villa of up to 600 m2

    With a pool and garage.

  • Plot 4,477 m2 Permit granted Two villas, 330 and 290 m2

    With pools and garages.

Based on the details of the plots presented by Midi Mas in 2024 and 2025. Bars: villa floor area, to the same scale.

The difference has nothing to do with surface area. It comes from the shape of the plot, its slope, its access, the planning rules that apply to it, and the project chosen for it: a permit fixes one project, not necessarily everything the plot allows. All of this can be read on site and on the plans, provided you know where to look.

You do not buy a plot by the square metre. You buy it for the house it allows.

The plots we present

Building plots in Cannes, and all the way to Monaco.

Each one is described by what it allows, not just by what it measures. Several already have a building permit (permis de construire). Price and availability, confirmed with the seller, and the status of the permit: we give you all of this in our very first conversation, plot by plot.

In and around Cannes

13 plots

Further afield

From Cannes to Monaco

Midi Mas presents these plots with a view to designing and building your villa on them. The plot details were published in late 2024 and updated in early 2025: since then, some plots may have found a buyer, some permits may have expired, and the planning rules of several towns have changed (in Mougins, for example, the local zoning plan, or PLU, was amended in December 2025). We confirm everything, plot by plot, in our first conversation.

None quite right? Show us the plots you spot, in Cannes or anywhere from Cannes to Monaco: we look at them with you, through a builder’s eye, before you decide to buy.

Visit plots with us
Cross-section of a sloping plot From the highest point of the plot, the eye clears everything and reaches the sea. At the level of the future living room, further down, it runs into the neighbour’s house. The required setback fixes where the house stands, and the slope calls for a retaining structure. 1 2 3 4 5
  1. 1On the day of the visit, from the highest point: the sea.
  2. 2From the living room, a few metres lower: the neighbour’s roof.
  3. 3The setback required by the planning regulations, which decides where the house can stand.
  4. 4The retaining structure the slope calls for.
  5. 5What the neighbour is still entitled to build.
Illustrative diagram: on a sloping plot, a drop of a few metres is enough to change a view.

What a listing does not show

You look at the view. We look at where you will see it from.

A plot in Cannes, one Saturday morning. The gate opens onto a slope held by dry-stone terraces (restanques), onto tall umbrella pines and, between their trunks, the bay and the Lérins Islands. It is what the listing promised, and it is true.

You do what everyone does: you climb to the top of the plot, where the view is finest, and you are already picturing the terrace right where you stand.

But your living room will not be there. It will be lower down, or further back: wherever the slope, the setbacks required by the planning regulations and access for construction machinery allow it to sit. That day, you will no longer be standing on a plot. You will be sitting in your own home. That is where the plot will have to keep its promises.

We, for our part, stay down below for a while. We look at where the construction machinery will come in, where the hill’s shadow will fall on a December afternoon, what the zone’s regulations allow here, in height as well as ground coverage, and what the neighbour could build tomorrow between you and the sea. Then we climb back up, and ask the only question that counts: from your living room, what will you see?

Sometimes the answer confirms the plot you fell for. Sometimes it turns your heart towards another, less photogenic in its listing but better able to carry the house you want to live in. Either way, you decide with full knowledge of the facts.

Everyone looks at a plot through the lens of their own trade. Ours is building a villa on it.

The estate agent knows the market, the surveyor measures the plot, the notary (notaire) secures the sale, the architect draws: each has a role. But it is by building that you learn what a slope, an access road or the ground itself really demands of a house. Since 1993, we have done both: design, then build. And that eye matters before you sign: unlike buying a house, buying a building plot in principle gives you no cooling-off period, except in a subdivision that requires a development permit (permis d’aménager).

A builder’s eye

Nine questions we ask of every plot before we draw a villa on it.

Here is what we examine, on site and on the plans. Keep this list: it will serve you on every plot you visit, with or without us.

How many square metres of footprint does this plot allow?

In the hills of Cannes, in zone UF of the local zoning plan (PLU), everything depends on the sub-zone: higher up (UFc) and on the Pointe-Croisette (UFp), a bare plot allows no new villa, except where the zoning map marks an exception. Lower down (UFa, UFb), it is unsealed open ground that limits the house: at least 70% of the plot, and the pool and terraces do not count towards it. The minimum setback there is in principle 5 metres from roads and from the boundaries with neighbouring plots.

What will you see from the living room?

Judge the view from the level you will live on, not from the highest point of the plot. In Cannes, the permitted height is given first by the PLU’s height plan (plan des hauteurs); failing that, the regulations set 9 metres in sub-zone UFa and 7 in UFb, on the slopes close to the shore. The PLU also marks out “sensitive vistas” (perspectives sensibles), which no building or planting may obscure. Then there are the neighbours, and what they can still build.

Is the villa you have in mind allowed there?

In the urban zones of Cannes, roofs are in principle pitched, in brick-red barrel tiles; in zone UF, any other type of roof must retain some tiling or an equivalent appearance. Almost the whole town also lies within a listed site (site inscrit): the state heritage architect (Architecte des Bâtiments de France) is consulted on your permit, and work cannot begin until four months after the application is filed. Near a historic monument (monument historique), such as the Villa Domergue, that architect’s approval may even be required. Better to know this before you fall in love with an image.

Is the plot in a red zone?

Two risk prevention plans cover Cannes: one for wildfire (PPRIF), one for flooding (PPRI). In the red zone of the wildfire plan, new buildings are in principle prohibited; in the blue zone, they are allowed subject to conditions, for example a standard firefighting water point no more than 150 metres away in B1, 200 in B2, or a road equipped for fire defence (voie défendue) closer still. Two neighbouring wooded plots can fall in different zones. This is checked plot by plot, as is exposure to coastal flooding (submersion marine) near the shore.

What does the ground tell you?

Exposure to clay shrink-swell varies from one neighbourhood of Cannes to the next. Where exposure is medium or high, the seller of a vacant building plot must give you a preliminary geotechnical study (étude géotechnique préalable): it describes the site, not your house. In all its zones, the PLU requires a soil study in the permit application whenever the project affects the subsoil or adds more than 20 m2 of ground coverage, in other words for any new villa. In areas of significant hazard on its ground movement map, it allows only the maintenance of existing buildings and work to reduce the risk.

What will the slope and the pines demand?

Within the listed site, which covers almost all of Cannes, no building is allowed within 10 metres of a large umbrella or Aleppo pine to be preserved, nor within 5 metres of a large olive tree or palm, though these, unlike the pines, can be transplanted. On sloping ground, the PLU in principle limits cut and fill to 1.50 metres; in its urban zones, it also caps retaining walls, in local stone, at 1.50 metres, and makes preserving the dry-stone terraces (restanques) a priority.

How will the machinery get in?

A lane that is charming by car can become a real issue for construction machinery. In all its zones, the Cannes PLU requires, for a new house, a gate set back at least 5 metres from the public road, or, failing that, a sliding gate 5 metres wide, and an access drive with a gradient of no more than 5% over its first 5 metres. Rainwater is managed on the plot: 100 litres per square metre of sealed surface, backed by a hydraulic study.

Has the permit been granted, or is it beyond challenge?

A third party can challenge a permit in court for two months from the first day it is continuously displayed on the plot; without proper display, that period does not start to run. The mayor can also withdraw it within three months if it is unlawful. A permit has a period of validity, and it can be transferred to the buyer only on application to the town hall, with the agreement of its holder. The conditions that protect you are written into the preliminary contract (avant-contrat), with your notary (notaire).

What is it like at 8 am on a Tuesday?

A Saturday visit tells you nothing about weekday traffic. In Cannes, roads such as the boulevard Carnot and the Croisette are in category 3 of the road noise classification, with a noise-affected zone of 100 metres on either side. To the west, the noise exposure plan (plan d’exposition au bruit) of the Cannes-Mandelieu airfield also governs building. Come back on a weekday, and in winter if you can, when the sun is low.

None of these questions is a reason to give up on a plot. A slope can offer a view that flat land never will; an existing permit is a valuable starting point. But every one of these questions will come up one day.

Before you sign, it is a question, and it has an answer. Afterwards, it is a constraint.

Rules cited: the Cannes local zoning plan, or PLU (zone UF, provisions common to the urban zones and to all zones, explanatory report; amendment no. 5 approved on 18 December 2025, annexes up to date as of 2 April 2026, including the ground movement hazard map), the natural risk prevention plans approved by the prefect of the Alpes-Maritimes (wildfire 2010, flooding 2021, amended in 2025), the State’s notice on coastal flooding (porter à connaissance, 2017), the listed site “Bande côtière de Nice à Théoule” (1974), the surroundings of the Villa Domergue and other historic monuments, the road noise classification (1999 and 2016), the noise exposure plan of the Cannes-Mandelieu airfield (2005), Géorisques, the Planning Code (code de l’urbanisme), the Construction and Housing Code (code de la construction et de l’habitation). They vary from one zone to another: every plot has to be checked.

These questions are not settled by reading a listing. They are settled on site, plans in hand. That is exactly what we do during a visit.

Visit plots with us

From plot to villa

What a plot becomes, when you know how to read it.

A slope, a view, an orientation: every plot sets its own conditions. In these villas, the house began with the plot. What these photos no longer show (earthworks, retaining structures, the structural frame), you will see on our building sites, which we open to visitors at every stage of construction.

  • Aerial view of a villa with tiled roofs surrounded by palm trees, olive trees and lawn, with the pool and the hills in the background.

    Anse d’argent

    Le Castellaras

    The plotAn open plot among the olive groves, facing the mountains.

    The answerA double-height living room whose glazing brings the garden and the pool right into the sitting area.

  • Villa with tiled roofs, a large timber terrace and a pool, set against stone terrace walls, facing the hills and mountains.

    Soléa

    Roquefort-les-Pins

    The plotStone terraces (restanques), facing the mountains.

    The answerThe villa backs onto the stone walls; the terrace and pool open onto the landscape.

  • Contemporary hillside villa: glazed openings over two floors, stone cladding, a glass-edged terrace and a curved infinity pool above the greenery.

    Sillage

    The plotA slope facing the landscape.

    The answerThe terrace and pool reach out towards the view, above the lower level.

Photographs of villas built by Midi Mas.

Press

Midi Mas, une signature haute couture

Article in the magazine Perspective
Entrance façade of a white contemporary villa with a large black-framed glazed wall, pale stone cladding and wide roof overhangs.
Sillage, Vallauris: glazed wall, stone cladding and wide roof overhangs.

The plot visit

Let’s visit the plots that interest you, together. Before you sign, you will know which villa each one allows you to build.

Don’t take our word for it. Come and look, with us, on site.

  1. A first conversationYou tell us what you are looking for and the life you want to live in this house. We select the plots that could fit, and confirm their availability.
  2. Visiting the plotsOn each plot, we look with you at what the listing does not say: where the living room would sit, the path of the sun, the slope and what it would call for, the access, the neighbours, the planning rules.
  3. Our building sites, at every stageWe take you to see villas under construction, from structural work to finishes: what a real plot demands of a real house, and how we respond. You judge our work on the evidence, including what a finished villa no longer shows.

What you take away

  • a clear reading of every plot you visit;
  • the questions to ask of any plot;
  • a precise idea of the house that could stand there.

Have you spotted a plot elsewhere in our area? Mention it in the form: from our very first conversation, we will work out together how to look at it with the same eye before you decide to buy.

A plot is chosen in a few weeks. Your house will stand on it for decades.

Visit plots with us

Before you write to us

Who this visit will be useful to, and who less so.

It will probably be useful to you if

  • you are looking for a plot on which to have your villa built, from 200 to 1,200 m2, in Cannes or between Cannes and Monaco;
  • you have spotted a plot, or not yet: either way, now is the right time;
  • you would rather understand a plot before buying it than after;
  • you care as much about the quality of construction as about the location.

It will probably be less useful to you if

  • you are looking for a plot to invest in or resell, with no plan to build a house;
  • you want a house you can move into straight away: buying an existing villa will no doubt meet that need better;
  • you are searching outside our area.

Does the first list sound like you? What happens next is simple.

Visit plots with us

Frequently asked questions

The questions to ask before you buy a plot.

Is your question not listed here? Keep it for our first conversation: we will answer it in person.

Are the plots presented here still available?

They were presented in 2024 and 2025, and some may have found a buyer since. Tell us what you are looking for: we will tell you which remain available and, with the seller’s agreement, arrange a visit to those that suit your project.

Why are prices not shown on this page?

Because a published price ages quickly: these details date from 2024 and 2025, and a price may have been revised since. In our very first conversation, before any visit, we give you the current price of each plot that interests you, with its availability and what it allows you to build. That is how you really compare prices: two plots at the same price can carry two villas with nothing in common.

If a permit has already been granted, do I have to build the house it describes?

No. A permit proves that a project was judged compliant with the planning rules on this plot: that is valuable information. But it was drawn for someone other than you. If it matches the house you want to live in, it can be transferred to you with its holder’s agreement, as long as it is valid: you then avoid having a new application processed. If not, it makes way for a new application for the villa you really want. We go through this with you, plot by plot.

I don’t have a plot yet. Is it too early to contact you?

No, it is actually the best time. You read a plot better when you already know how you want to live on it, and you avoid buying a plot that will not allow the house you imagined. We can help you choose the right plot.

I have spotted a plot that is not listed here. Can you look at it with me?

If it is within our area and you are thinking of having your villa built on it, we can advise you before you decide to buy, with a technical analysis of the plot if needed. Name its town in the form: we will discuss it in our very first conversation.

What happens after the visit?

You leave with a precise reading of the plots you visited: what each one allows, what it demands, the house it could carry. If one of them convinces you and our way of working suits you, we move on to designing your villa. If not, you will look at the next plots with a different eye.

I don’t live in the area. How does the visit work?

The first conversation takes place remotely: together, we shortlist the plots worth the journey, with their price and availability. The visit is then arranged for a date that fits your next stay on the French Riviera, and can include our current building sites. What matters to us is the town where the plot is, not where you live. Let us know your preferred language, too.

What comes next

The best time to look at a plot with a builder is before you buy it.

The first conversation is there to prepare your visit: understanding what you are looking for, selecting the plots that meet it, confirming their availability. To make it useful, have in mind:

  • the area that draws you: Cannes, or another town between Cannes and Monaco;
  • the plot you have spotted, if any, and the date you have in mind for the preliminary sale contract (compromis de vente);
  • how you would like to live there, in a few words;
  • a timescale, even a rough one.

The form guides you through the rest, one question at a time.

Visit plots with Midi Mas

A few questions, one at a time. Under two minutes.

Start

No plot yet? Just say so: we will help you recognise the right one.

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