Report · Breaking MinutePrestige brokerage sets out what Economic Development Board and Statistics Mauritius figures mean for buyers weighing luxury property investment in Mauritius against Provence
Stone Investment, a prestige property brokerage with offices in Marseille and Grande Riviere, Mauritius, has published its reading of foreign buyer activity in the two markets it covers. The firm points to Economic Development Board data recording 862 authorisations for residential real estate purchases in Mauritius during 2025, and argues that the residency rules attached to those purchases, rather than price alone, now decide which buyers complete and which walk away.
Foreign nationals cannot buy Mauritian residential property freely. Purchases run through a small number of state-approved frameworks: the Property Development Scheme (PDS), which replaced the older Integrated Resort Scheme and Real Estate Scheme; Smart City developments; and the ground-plus-two apartment route, which carries a minimum price of MUR 6 million. A purchase of USD 375,000 or more under the PDS or in a Smart City carries a residence permit for the buyer, spouse and dependent children. Registration duty is 5 percent of the property value.
That structure explains the shape of the buyer pool. Economic Development Board figures covering 2005 to 2023 record 5,396 residential units sold under the approved schemes for a cumulative MUR 156.6 billion, with Mauritian buyers accounting for 9 percent of acquisitions. 2023 alone produced 646 unit sales worth MUR 23.8 billion, the highest annual value in the published series.
Prices have not moved in a straight line. Statistics Mauritius recorded a 13.89 percent year-on-year rise in the Residential Property Price Index in the third quarter of 2025, followed by a much flatter 0.96 percent in the first quarter of 2026. Gross rental yields on Mauritian residential property averaged 3.22 percent in January 2026, according to Global Property Guide.
Stone Investment reads the gap between those two quarters as a normalisation rather than a reversal, and says the effect is uneven across the island. Demand in the west coast corridor around Black River and Tamarin has held up better than the national index suggests, while stock in the north has taken longer to clear. The firm's Mauritius property collection is weighted toward the west and the coastal south, close to its Grande Riviere office.
"The approval number tells you how many people cleared the paperwork. It does not tell you why they came," said Pierre Monville, Founder and Managing Director of Stone Investment. "Most buyers we meet in Mauritius arrive with a residency question first and a property question second, and they are often surprised how much that ordering changes which scheme suits them. In Provence the sequence runs the other way. Someone falls for a house in the Luberon and works out the tax position afterwards, which is a harder conversation to have late."
The Provence side of the business follows a different rhythm. Stone Investment sells character houses and vineyards in Provence, across the Bouches-du-Rhone and the Vaucluse, including twentieth-century houses of recognized architectural interest. Buyers there face no scheme restrictions and no residency threshold, and the firm reports that deals turn on condition, water rights and planning history more often than on asking price.
Pricing accuracy carries more weight in that market, according to the firm, because Provence stock is heterogeneous and comparable sales are thin on the ground. Stone Investment runs a prestige property valuation service in both regions, built on micro-market analysis, architectural assessment, comparable sales evidence and an estimate of buyer motivation, and offers it under a six-month exclusive mandate.
The firm plans to publish its reading of both markets twice a year. Figures cited above are drawn from published third-party sources and are stated for information only. They are not a forecast and do not constitute investment, tax or legal advice.
About Stone Investment
Stone Investment is a prestige brokerage dealing in luxury property in Mauritius and Provence. Founded by Pierre Monville, the firm is headquartered at 64, rue Sainte, Marseille, with an Indian Ocean office at Grande Riviere, Mauritius. It handles prestige sales, valuations and guidance on the Mauritian residential schemes open to foreign buyers, and represents character houses, vineyards, seafront villas and architecturally significant homes across both regions.
Media Contact:
Pierre Monville
Stone Investment
p.monville@stoneinvestment.fr
+33 6 1664 1604
