White contemporary villa with large black-framed glazed openings, a blue-mosaic infinity pool and an olive tree in the foreground, in Nice

ÉléganceNiceBuilt by Midi Mas

Building plots in Nice · From Cannes to the gates of Monaco

Before you buy a plot in Nice, 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 metropolitan zoning plan 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

Two plots, six square metres apart. Not the same villa.

Take three plots we have presented in Èze. The first two measure 1,000 and 1,006 m2, and both have a sea view. Yet here is what has been approved or deemed feasible on each:

  • Plot 1,000 m2 Permit granted A 360 m2 villa

    With a pool.

  • Plot 1,006 m2 Permit granted A 285 m2 villa

    With a pool and garage.

  • Plot 1,400 m2 Feasible A 360 m2 villa

    With a double garage and pool.

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 Nice, and from Cannes to the gates of 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 Nice

7 plots

Further afield

From Cannes to the gates of 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.

The whole French Riviera, town by town

None quite right? Show us the plots you spot, in Nice or anywhere from Cannes to the gates of 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 Nice, one Saturday morning. The gate opens onto old dry-stone terraces (restanques) planted with olive trees and, between the pines, the bay of Villefranche. 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?

It is the figure listings rarely give; together with the height, it caps the size of your villa. In the low-density neighbourhoods of detached houses in Nice (the UFc sub-zones of the metropolitan local zoning plan, or PLUm), ground coverage is in principle limited to 10% of the plot in UFc1, 8% in UFc4 and 6% in UFc5, with a setback of at least 5 metres from roads and neighbouring boundaries. In zone UD, it is 15% in UDh and 30% in UDc. In a subdivision (lotissement), or where a single permit divides the plot, the metropolitan plan applies these rules to the project as a whole.

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. That view also depends on the permitted height: in zone UF, 7 metres to the eaves, measured at every point from the foot of the façade; on a slope, it is therefore the downhill façade that sets the limit. Within the “view corridors” (dégagements de vue) on the zoning map, which protect a public view, nothing may rise above the prescribed level, not even a hedge.

Is the villa you have in mind allowed there?

The rules on external appearance shape your house too. In zones UF and UD, pure white is banned on large surfaces, colours must follow a colour chart (nuancier), fences may not exceed 2 metres and privacy screens are prohibited. A large part of the slopes of Mont Boron and Mont Alban also lies within a listed site (site inscrit): there, the project is submitted to the state heritage architect (Architecte des Bâtiments de France) for an opinion. Better to know this before you fall in love with an image.

Is the plot in a red zone?

Nice is covered by risk prevention plans for wildfire (PPRIF), ground movement and earthquake; the flood-prone areas of the Var and the Paillon, by flood risk prevention plans (PPRI). In a red zone, the principle is that nothing may be built. In blue zone B1 or B1a of the wildfire plan, a house must, among other things, stand less than 100 metres from a defensible road (voie défendable) or 150 metres from a standard firefighting water point. This is checked plot by plot.

What does the ground tell you?

On the Géorisques clay shrink-swell map, most of Nice is rated as medium exposure, in places high: the seller of a buildable plot must then give you a preliminary geotechnical study (étude géotechnique préalable), which describes the site, not your house. In a blue landslide zone of the ground movement plan, a geological and geotechnical study must come before any new project. Nice’s earthquake plan also requires, in principle, a seismic compliance review of the project, at the latest when the permit application is filed.

What will the slope cost?

A slope offers levels, terraces, often the view. It also calls for retaining structures: in zones UF and UD, a wall may not exceed 3 metres in height, and successive walls must be separated by planted dry-stone terraces (restanques) at least 1.5 metres wide. Part of the plot must remain green space: in sub-zone UFc1 and in zone UDh, 50% of the plot, of which 35% unsealed open ground, planted with one tree for every 70 m2.

How will the machinery get in?

A lane that is charming by car can become a real issue for construction machinery. In blue zone B1 or B1a of the wildfire plan, a new access road requires at least 3 metres of carriageway and a gradient of less than 15%. Along a stream valley (vallon) marked on the zoning map, even a covered one, a strip of 2.50 metres on either side of its centre line remains unbuildable. The Métropole is not obliged to accept your rainwater: infiltration on the plot is the preferred option.

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 Nice, most of the open-air sections of the A8 are in category 1, the highest in the road noise classification, with a noise-affected zone of 300 metres on either side. East of the city, the Basse Corniche and the Moyenne Corniche are in category 3, with a zone of 100 metres. Along the motorway, several sub-zones of zone UF require homes to be set back a further 10 metres. Come back on a weekday, and if possible in winter, 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 metropolitan local zoning plan, or PLUm, of the Métropole Nice Côte d’Azur (zones UF and UD, general provisions and zoning map; approved on 25 October 2019, last amended by simplified amendment no. 3 of 11 July 2025, then brought into line (mise en compatibilité), most recently by prefectoral order of 27 July 2026; general revision under way), the Métropole’s drainage regulations (règlement d’assainissement, 2013), the listed site (site inscrit) of the coast from Nice to Menton (1973), the risk prevention plans approved by the prefect of the Alpes-Maritimes (wildfire 2017, amended in 2021; ground movement 2020, and 2008 for Cimiez; flooding of the lower Var valley 2011, revised in 2013 and amended since, and of the Paillon 1999; earthquake 2019), the noise classification of the A8 (prefectoral order of 1999) and of the roads (prefectoral order of 2016), Géorisques, the Planning Code (code de l’urbanisme), the Environmental Code (code de l’environnement), 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.

  • 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.

  • Single-storey villa with stone pillars, full-height glazing and an infinity pool facing the hills.

    Rivage

    Roquefort-les-Pins

    The plotA distant view to capture.

    The answerOn a single level, the entrance, the living room, the terrace and the pool line up with the landscape: your eye travels through the house before your feet do.

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 Nice or between Cannes and the gates of 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: Nice, or another town between Cannes and the gates of 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.

Your answers are used to prepare our first conversation. How they are processed is described in our privacy policy.