Angers again first city where life is good in France, we tell you why

Angers is the first French city where life is good if we are to believe the 2023 list of the association “Towns and villages where life is good” published on Monday February 27. Green spaces, public investments, dynamic economy… Five reasons explain its position at the top of the ranking.

The charm of Angevin sweetness once again got the better of the ranking of the association Towns and villages where life is good. Angers is at the top of the list published by the Sunday newspaper, for the second consecutive year.

The 2023 awards were based on two new criteria: environmental protection, and safety assessed at municipal (and no longer departmental) level.

Has the unbeatable capital of Anjou found the miracle recipe for a happy and peaceful urban life?

Nothing is less certain, but the city has to its credit at least five assets which contribute to the quality of life it offers to its inhabitants, and to those of the Angers Loire Métropole agglomeration.

Angers is a city where no one skimps on urban development to improve the living environment. This is evidenced by the modernization of the Convention Center between 2018 and 2019. The performance hall is now equipped with an auditorium to accommodate its 25,000 annual delegates.

The new ice rink in Angers – Angers Iceparc – also opened in 2019 to replace the old one which dated from 1982. The new complex has two tracks and 3,500 seats to accommodate supporters of the Dukes of Angers, which plays at the highest level, within the Synerglace Ligue Magnus.

The Angevin tramway network has been under construction since 2017 to integrate an additional 10 km route from east to west. It will offer two new lines that will complete the historic line opened 12 years ago to better serve the city, in particular the faculties, and open up certain districts.

Line B will connect the working-class district of Monplaisir to that of the faculties of Belle-Beille, passing through the city center. A bridge was built over the Maine at Place Molière to allow trams to cross the river. It will also be accessible to bicycles and pedestrians.

This project also aims to reduce the use of the car in town. The commissioning of the new lines B and C is scheduled for July 8, 2023.

• Renovation of the castle of Angers

The city takes great care of its rich and ancient heritage, such as the former royal fortress, which is one of the 22 castles of the Loire.

Victim of infiltrations, the north facade of the castle is under work until the end of 2023 to replace the cement joints which suffocated the structure with the original mortar based on sand and lime.

Visitors will be able to access the interior of the castle towers once the work has been completed.

Angers is placed at the top of the ranking of green cities of the Green Cities Observatory, which concerns only green spaces and not the ecological policy of the city.

It houses a twenty parks and gardens as well as many guinguettes bordering the Loire or the Maine. Angers counts 100m² of green space per inhabitant, twice the national average.

Green spaces represent 14% of the city’s surface, not including forests. Among these green settings are the Terra Botanica educational park and the Jardin des Plantes, an English garden designed in 1905 by Édouard André. A collection of hundred-year-old trees stand there on 4 hectares.

Parc Saint-Serge has been transformed in just a few years. From an SNCF hangar of sheet metal, concrete and asphalt, it has been replaced by 5 hectares of greenery and vegetation.

This attraction for plants is also reflected at the educational and economic level. A penchant that could well be a distant legacy of King René of Anjou, a botany enthusiast.

The Angevin economy is diverse. Research, education and health occupy a large place there, but the city stands out above all thanks to its dynamism in the plant sector and in agricultural research in the laboratory, which makes it the leading horticultural center in Europe.

Angers has also been relying on advanced electronics since the 2000s. The city has been awarded the French Tech label to support the development of innovative projects and start-ups.

The City of Connected Objects was established there in 2015 before being taken over by the Pays de la Loire region and the We network network to be transformed into a Technocampus in Verrière-en-Anjou. objective: to connect project leaders and manufacturers to contribute to innovation in the digital sector.

The capital of Maine-et-Loire benefits from the emulation of its department. In 2021, 9,640 business creations were registered by the Maine-et-Loire Chamber of Commerce and Industry (half of them in Angers Loire Métropole), compared to 5,329 creations in 2017. More than a third are businesses individual.

The population of Angers is young: 40% of the inhabitants of the sleeping beauty are under 30 years old.

It is also the 11th student city in France according to the 2022-2023 Student Ranking. Students represent 19% of the population, or one in five Angevins.

The studies offered in Angers are distinguished by their diversity within two universities and four campuses. Many private schools have also taken up residence there, such as ESEO (engineering school), ESSCA (business school) or ESA (higher school of agriculture).

Since the start of the 2018 academic year, ISTOM – Graduate School of International Agro-Development – has also been established there. It is part of a proactive department in terms of plant research and innovation. The school trains engineers specializing in agricultural sectors.

Several reception facilities are offered by the city for students. A “Welcome Pack” allows them to receive a checkbook containing reductions and places offered to enjoy sports and cultural activities, and thus discover the city while “saving €200”.

The Vélocité service offers the possibility of accessing a bicycle loaned free of charge for 24 months on presentation of a complete A’tout file and a student card.
These savings are not to be neglected, because Angers is the student city where the increase in the cost of living was the strongest in 2022, in particular because of the explosion of rents according to the student union UNEF.

The attractiveness of Angers attracts a growing population. The Angers Loire Métropole agglomeration crossed the threshold of 300,000 inhabitants in 2019, including 155,850 Angevins, i.e. 954 more inhabitants per year between 2013 and 2019 according to INSEE.

The Angers real estate market therefore continues to gain in value.

The price of goods per square meter is 34% higher than the average for the department. It reaches a price of €3,461/m² according to a Capital survey. A value that has increased by 38.1% between 2020 and 2023.

“The department has been experiencing a constant increase in property prices for 5 years, with an acceleration in 2021”notes the Departmental Housing Information Agency of Maine-et-Loire (ADIL 49) in October 2022.

The cost of apartments has increased by 18% when purchased, and by 9% for houses. The median price* is €295,000 (net selling price excluding agency and notary fees) for a house (+€25,000), and €150,000 for an apartment (+€20,000).

“To become the owner of a house in Angers, buyers must have an income of more than €4,500 per month”concludes the ADIL 49, which underlines that this soaring price keeps the most modest families away from property.

Rents are also on the rise. They have increased by 3.2% compared to 2022, and by more than 10% over the last five years.

“Excluding charges, the median rent* for apartments, all surfaces combined, in Angers is set at €11/m² over the 4 quarters of 2022”reports Capital using data from the Clameur Observatory.

• Large-scale building renovation projects

Several real estate projects are underway to meet growing demand.

A new business district with 70,000 m² of offices will see the light of day in 2025 at the Saint-Laud TGV station. This project aims to revitalize the city in a strategic location since the development of the Grand Ouest high-speed line, which brought Angers and Paris closer together. The station is becoming an economic center with an estimated creation of 5,000 jobs in the tertiary sector.

The Monplaisir and Belle-Beille priority districts are the subject of an urban renewal program worth 500 million euros. The objective is to upgrade these neighborhoods and promote social diversity there by 2026.

This revival involves the destruction and renovation of housing considered to be dilapidated and too energy-intensive. The public space will be redeveloped with the layout of a green alley and the construction of a health center. The Monplaisir sports complex has already been completely renovated and inaugurated in October 2022.

*The median price indicates that half of the rents/sales have a lower price per square meter and the other half have a higher price per square meter. This indicator is more representative than an average because it is less influenced by extreme values.

The City of Angers has long been committed to culture, conceived as a source of social ties and collective and civic life.

In 1998, the municipality initiated the Culture and Solidarity Charter, which brings together associations and cultural structures with the aim of facilitating access to art and artistic expression in all their forms for people who are isolated, in a precarious situation or with a disability.

Several performance halls can host cinema, dance, theater or concerts: Le Quai, Le Chabada, Amphitéa, the Grand Théâtre, les 400 Coups or the Congress Centre. The latter is one of the two places of residence of the Orchester national des Pays de la Loire.

Angers also hosts many historical festivals that showcase a variety of arts:

• Les Accroche-coeurs, street theater festival (since 1998)
• Angers Comics Festival for comics (since 1999)
• Premiers Plans Festival, dedicated to “first European cinematographic works” (since 1989)
• Anjou Festival, for theater (since 1950)
• Tempo Rives, contemporary music festival (since 2009)