St Pons
property details
for a Hub House co-operative coliving project

Environment ✧ natural park, deep craggy valley, conifer forests and scrub woods; hikes from door, greenway; beach 1h

Services ✧ 2 supermarkets, cafes and good restaurants, cinema, local producer shop; town 35mins bus

Access ✧ terminus station 40mins bus (last 7pm) +1h45 Toulouse; Beziers 1h bus (mainline station, airport; last 6:30pm); Montpellier bus 3h (changing)

Area ✧ isolated but large well serviced village, nearest towns are uninteresting so this location has to really be considered self-contained and outdoor focussed
✦ is well connected if at distance with 3 bus routes, better towns of Castres and Beziers at 1h (drive or bus) and Narbonne, just about doable as an occasional day out, including for the beach
✦ 2 weekly markets, in summer apparently attracting over 100 stalls
✦ the 76km Passa Païs greenway runs past the village and is a easy and very pleasant route for exploring and visiting a couple of nice villages with cafes, plus one can also go along the valley by bus
✦ many walks and hikes from the door with endless circuit variations, though the more interesting parts take 3h climbing 700m+ and really require a pickup/dropoff
✦ biking involves climbing if not excessive for gentler rides, but variety is 1h+ with 700m+ of climbing thus again dropoff/pickup desireable for more adventurous rides exceptional spots for wildswimming and amazing hikes, plus kayaking and horse riding 25mins drive
✦ 20mins drive is a quiet lake with excellent hike down a waterfall (1000 steps) and another larger one with SUP (in season), or at 40mins another in the Aude valley for sailing, SUP, windsurfing much of the year
✦ there's various villages and sights of the Minervois (to the south) accessible in 30–35mins
✦ in the nearby town there's a nice walk with hanging bridge and also a small via ferrata, there's also a more impressive one at 30mins drive along with climbing
✦ in 45mins drive there's even more natural variety, and the beach is 1h drive
✦ the region is however becoming affected by drought though the source of the river is in the village itself and water is drawn from a karstic well
✦ the village has one nice small public garden around the source a stone's throw away, plus benches under trees along the river, and what appears to be a couple of public green spaces (grassy hillside, and riverside)
✦ whilst the winter is generally unappealing and the downseason long it nonetheless offers nice spells for opportunistic outdoor activiities and is in fact better than Carcassonne down in the Aude valley (with significantly less wind too)
✦ 2 tennis courts (well maintained) 20mins walk/5 bike; sports hall has indoor climbing wall, and can accommodate badminton and tennis
✦ public-service fibre has just been connected to distribution points (spring '23) with rollout and commercial availability to follow

Property ✧ main disadvantage of this property is that it is on a fairly busy road (minimum 4k vehicles/day, 5/min though of course has lull and peak times) however the speed limit is 30 and it's worth noting most of the south facing houses on the same avenue have their windows open so it can't be too bad; I did lower the neighbourhood score and would've excluded the property were it not for the fact I discovered this at the end of my assesment and it otherwise has good prospects
✦ very tatty and appears almost to have been squatted though has one floor in a semi-presentable and usable state; strictly needs new windows but would do for interim
✦ main building 75m2 3 floors, plus attic which is not quite standing height
✦ rear wing 25m2 2 full floors, plus caves (~15m2) and 1 attic room (~10m2)
✦ 80m2 courtyard; this is essentially surrounded on all sides 2–4 stories, and would be great to cover over with a 1st floor terrace making it slightly less enclosed
✦ two big garages onto street (entire ground floor is not counted in usable space)
✦ possibly some underground caves at end
✦ 375m2 is estimate including garages, caves and attics, 425m2 includes covering over part of the courtyard but would actually be at least 450m2 with orangery thus a very acceptable size
✦ potentially the rear wing is not interconnected, as it's access is up steps from the courtyard, however with that covered over, its access could be through the orangery
✦ as its windows are small, might want to convert some into juliet balconies
✦ some small plots of veg gardens behind on steep hillside that it might be possible to acquires
✦ fronts onto a moderately busy road but the rear should be quiet
✦ potential as a micro-hub e.g. a few desks for locals such as with a max of 1 day per week could create some good local connections whilst remaining dynamic (too many reservable days per person would reduce dynamism in favour of simply being a coworking for them)
✦ the less than ideal winter climate would be offset by a large south facing 1.5 storey orangery at the end of the courtyard (probably on the 1st floor roof terrace) plus a fire pit and fire place indoors, which as the ground floor spaces would have huge glass frontage would be nicely welcoming; would operate 4 off (Dec–Marc) - 4 peak (Jun–Sep) – 4 shoulder seasons with a disocunt to near-cost in winter as even the nice villages become dead
✦ facade really needs stripping back to stone work but not urgent, and could have (subtle) mural, e.g. natural features
✦ DIY depot is a few hundred metres ;)