Homes & property · House hunting

Our house hunt on Réunion Island

Updated: 3 September 2026

By Frank Knabe · personal experience on Réunion Island

A home for family, work and yoga

When we looked for a house on Réunion Island, we needed more than four walls and enough bedrooms. We wanted somewhere that would suit our entire new life: room for us as a family of four, a dedicated office for Frank and a work area for Sylvia too. At that point, however, we still expected Sylvia to teach her yoga classes in rented premises.

Location was equally important. We wanted to remain above Saint-Denis if possible because we already knew the area. Saint-Denis and its surroundings provide everything we need day to day. At the same time, La Montagne and the neighbouring hills are quieter and, depending on the location, several hundred metres above sea level.

Our present home is at an altitude of about 350 metres. We find the climate ideal: it is noticeably cooler than directly on the coast, although it is often windier. Depending on traffic, Saint-Denis is roughly 15 to 20 minutes away. Schools also played an important part in our decision: La Montagne has an école élémentaire and a collège, while Saint-Denis has several lycées.

Why we did not choose the west or east

The west is popular for its beaches and drier climate. For us, however, high property prices and intense summer heat counted against it. We also felt that some places were more tourist-oriented and shaped by affluent newcomers from mainland France. We did not want to live in a tourist bubble, but somewhere well connected to ordinary life on the island.

The east is greener and more tropical, but also considerably wetter and rainier. Because the mountainous interior cannot simply be crossed by car, journeys from there to the swimming beaches in the west would have been too long for us.

From La Montagne, we take about 40 minutes to reach the swimming beaches in the west. We also considered the south around Saint-Pierre. We liked many things there, although some areas are very windy. In the end, the hills above Saint-Denis were the best match for our family, work and climate requirements.

An expensive area and very different houses

La Montagne is one of the sought-after residential areas around Saint-Denis, so both purchase prices and rents are correspondingly high.

We had followed the property market from Germany for quite some time. During a holiday in August 2024, one year before we emigrated, we viewed our first houses. Once we had arrived and began searching determinedly for a new home, we saw many more properties, including in Saint-Denis and the hills above the west coast. Gradually, we developed a feel for prices, locations and typical problems.

The differences were enormous. We saw older timber houses with damp, mould or termite damage. Other houses were spacious and impressive inside, but had open galleries and surprisingly few enclosed rooms. Despite their overall size, they were impractical for a family, two work areas and yoga.

Construction also needs careful inspection. Some older houses are largely concrete and can feel unpleasantly cool and damp inside at higher, cooler elevations. Visible electrical cables in plastic trunking are not unusual either. This is not necessarily a defect, but it differs markedly from what many buyers from Germany expect.

Two houses on our shortlist

A well-maintained house in La Montagne, with about 1,000 square metres of land and roughly 200 square metres of living space, appeared to offer good value. Alterations, new French windows and an added wall could have created another room. A larger area beside the pool might also have accommodated yoga, but it had no shade and was not really suitable because of the pool. The annual taxe foncière, however, was expected to be about €5,200. Amounts vary greatly, and despite the legal basis I still do not fully understand how the tax is calculated. It shows that purchase and renovation costs are not the only figures that matter; ongoing costs do too. Official overview of the taxe foncière ↗

We then viewed another very large property. It offered a great deal, but it was too big for us and some details were unconvincing. We would have paid for a lot of space we did not need.

What matters is whether the layout, atmosphere and development potential suit your life, and whether the purchase, including ongoing costs, remains financially sensible. We would not put everything we owned into a house or, for a property in that price bracket, take on new debts that we could not repay in our lifetime. After buying, we still wanted sufficient financial room for living, necessary work and unforeseen expenses.

Then our present home appeared

When our present home came into the picture, we stepped away from our earlier favourites. It was less expensive and had a wonderful atmosphere for us from the very first moment. When we first stood on the terrace, the wow factor was immediate. In addition, it offered us plenty of scope for future changes.

The grounds include a former double garage that had been converted into two bungalows. Initially, we planned to put an office there and create an area for massage and yoga classes in the main house. From the outset, though, this did not seem ideal because, without further alterations, there would have been no proper separation from our private living area.

Finding external yoga premises also continued to prove difficult. The previous year had shown us that rooms managed by associations were often already allocated or unavailable to additional yoga teachers. Private rooms were expensive or only available at inconvenient times. Our plan therefore changed: Frank set up his office in the main house. One half of the former bungalows is now a yoga room of about 50 square metres. The other half contains the massage area, with bathroom, storage and relaxation space.

Why this house suited us

We did not choose a perfect house. We chose land, a location and potential that suited our plans: enough room for the family, an office in the main house, our own yoga studio and a garden with mature trees and a hidden cabane that we still intend to restore. It is a wonderful spot with a breathtaking view among tall trees, and has a bedroom, a small veranda, a shower and a toilet.

We now know that we took an avoidable risk in the purchase process. We could move straight into the main house, and choosing the property was the right decision for us. The only unfortunate part was starting the planned bungalow conversion before the contractual questions had been fully resolved.

What our house hunt taught us

• View as many houses as possible and follow the market over a longer period.
• Do not compare only square metres; look at usable, enclosed rooms.
• Consider location, microclimate, school and work journeys, and distance from the beaches together.
• Inspect damp, the roof, timber elements, electrics and possible termite damage carefully.
• For extensions and outbuildings, establish whether they are authorised and may legally be used as intended.
• Alongside the purchase price, allow for taxe foncière, maintenance and foreseeable alterations.
• Do not look for the largest house, but the one that suits your daily life and budget.

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