Chesterton’s Global adds Nice, Saint Paul de Vence and Valbonne to its international network
Chestertons Global has announced a new partnership with Olivier Morvan & Co, a boutique luxury real estate agency based in Valbonne, extending its coverage of the French Riviera into Nice, Saint Paul de Vence, and the wider hinterland.
The new affiliate will operate as Chestertons Nice, led by Olivier Morvan, who has been advising buyers and sellers across this part of the Côte d’Azur for more than 25 years. The firm operates a team of four specialist brokers and covers a segment of the Riviera market that is geographically close to the coast but operates on quite different terms.
The area serves a distinct buyer profile, and one that has shifted considerably over the past decade. Valbonne sits at the edge of Sophia Antipolis, Europe’s largest technology and science park, home to approximately 2,400 companies and 40,000 workers. Demand for residential property in the village and surrounding area is shaped in part by that professional base, drawing in technology executives, entrepreneurs and internationally mobile professionals looking for a permanent or long-term base within 30 minutes of Nice Côte d’Azur airport.
Saint Paul de Vence, one of the region’s most preserved medieval villages and home to the Fondation Maeght, has long attracted buyers drawn by cultural heritage and lifestyle rather than coastal frontage, typically with a preference for properties that do not trade openly on the market. Nice itself, France’s fifth-largest city and a major transport hub with direct connections across Europe, supports a growing permanent residential market alongside the traditional second-home sector.
What these sub-markets share is constrained supply. Planning controls, village character designations and agricultural land protections restrict new development, and well-positioned properties in established locations trade infrequently. International demand is broad: the firm reports sustained buyer interest from the United Kingdom, the United States, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Scandinavia, Germany and the Middle East, with North American enquiries increasing in the most recent period. Buyers are seeking both primary residences and long-term investment assets, with lifestyle and capital preservation the primary drivers. The market has become more selective, and buyers are increasingly precise on pricing and condition.
Early in his career, Olivier Morvan worked as an estate agent in London, an experience that shaped his understanding of how international buyers approach property decisions and what they expect from a brokerage. He returned to the South of France and has since built a practice centred on long-standing client relationships, off-market access and detailed local knowledge across the hinterland and the wider Côte d’Azur.
Mohamed Mussa, Managing Director of Chestertons Global, said: “The French Riviera is several very different markets operating side by side, and understanding those differences is what separates genuine advisory from generic guidance. The Nice and Valbonne area has its own buyer profile, its own supply dynamics, and its own reasons to attract serious long-term capital. Olivier and his team have spent decades building the relationships and local knowledge that matter in this kind of market, and adding them to the Chestertons Global network gives our clients access to something we could not otherwise offer in this part of the Côte d’Azur.”
Olivier Morvan, Owner and Managing Director of Chestertons Nice, added: “Our clients are international, well-informed and they ask the right questions. Which locations hold value across a cycle. Where supply is genuinely constrained. What the planning context is for a property they are considering. Answering those questions accurately takes years in a very specific market. Joining Chesterton’s Global means we can now reach a far wider audience of qualified international buyers while continuing to deliver the local knowledge and personal service that our existing clients rely on. For us, that combination matters.”
The partnership builds on Chestertons Global’s existing footprint on the French Riviera and forms part of its broader strategy of working with specialist local firms in markets where international buyer demand is significant and on-the-ground expertise is difficult to replicate from a distance.
