A five-bedroom villa above Palombaggia asks about €75,000 a week in August and drops to roughly €40,000 in June, because Porto-Vecchio prices a short, intense southern-Corsican summer with an August apex. France's 10 percent VAT sits in the rate, the taxe de séjour is a small add, and the narrow coast roads make beach access the thing every booking pays for. The full structure, by size and season, with three worked examples.
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The number that matters first: €22,000 to €170,000 per week. That is the real spread for villa rentals around Porto-Vecchio, and where you land inside it turns on four things, in this order: the week of the year, the beach access, the size of the villa, and how close it sits to Palombaggia or the Cala Rossa gulf. Porto-Vecchio is the smart end of southern Corsica, where the rental stock concentrates on the gulf and the famous white-sand beaches, and that beachfront scarcity pushes the top of the market well past the Greek and Spanish islands.
The calendar has a sharp apex. August is the peak, July sits just below, and both run 40 to 70 percent above the June and September shoulder. The southern-Corsican summer pulls demand hard into the two high-summer months, when Palombaggia and Santa Giulia are at their busiest, so the value sits in June and September, when the sea is warm, the beaches breathe, and the same villa lets for well under its August rate.
Indicative weekly rates in euros for staffed or self-catered villas across the Porto-Vecchio gulf, Palombaggia, and Santa Giulia. Shoulder is May, June, and September. July is high summer. August is the apex column, quoted as a weekly rate. Beachfront villas with direct beach access sit at the top of each band.
| Villa size | Shoulder (May, Jun, Sep) | July | August (apex) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 bedrooms | €22,000 to €34,000 | €34,000 to €50,000 | €44,000 to €64,000 |
| 5 bedrooms | €30,000 to €46,000 | €46,000 to €68,000 | €58,000 to €85,000 |
| 6 bedrooms | €44,000 to €64,000 | €64,000 to €92,000 | €82,000 to €115,000 |
| 7+ beachfront estate | €60,000 to €85,000 | €90,000 to €130,000 | €115,000 to €170,000+ |
Bands reflect villas across the Porto-Vecchio gulf, Cala Rossa, Palombaggia, and Santa Giulia, May 2026. Beachfront estates at Cala Rossa, and villas with direct beach access above Palombaggia, sit at the top of each band.
Porto-Vecchio fans out from its hilltop old town to a gulf and a run of famous beaches, and the premium turns on the sand. The Cala Rossa side of the gulf, with its calm water and its grand estates among the umbrella pines, holds the most, and the villas set above Palombaggia, the white-sand beach that put southern Corsica on the map, sit right alongside it. A villa with a private path to the beach commands the very top of the market here.
Below those, Santa Giulia with its shallow lagoon-like bay runs strong for families, Pinarello and the coast toward Sainte-Lucie-de-Porto-Vecchio give a quieter, slightly lower-priced beachfront, and the inland and old-town villas trade sand for views and a lower rate. You pay most for a beachfront estate at Cala Rossa or a Palombaggia villa with beach access, more again for a private path to the sand, less for an inland or town villa, and least in the shoulder weeks.
France charges its reduced VAT rate of 10 percent on furnished tourist accommodation, built into the quoted villa rate rather than added at the desk. The commune of Porto-Vecchio also levies a taxe de séjour, set by accommodation class, starting from €0.22 per adult per night for unclassified rentals and rising to a few euros per adult per night for the top-classified properties, with the schedule published each year. The taxe de séjour is not subject to VAT, and on a large group it is a small line, but it does scale with the number of adults.
The top Porto-Vecchio villas trade on service, and a fully staffed estate with a chef, housekeeper, and gardener is common at the high end, with the chef running €400 to €800 per day plus a generous food and wine budget. Self-catered villas sit lower and add staff as needed. The end-of-stay clean runs €400 to €1,500 by size. Expect a refundable security deposit of €5,000 to €30,000 by card hold, returned within two to four weeks, and a deposit of 30 to 50 percent at booking on an August week, with the balance due 60 to 90 days out.
Each budget is built from the rate plus the fees that land on the invoice. The taxe de séjour, the chef, and the car hire are the lines that move the Porto-Vecchio total most.
Headline: €30,000 / wk (early-summer shoulder, gulf-side villa, short drive to the beaches).
Taxe de séjour (2 adults, 7 nights, mid-class) €35. End-of-stay clean €450. Car hire €600.
All-in: about €31,085 for the week, roughly €4,440 a night for a villa that sleeps eight.
Headline: €62,000 / wk (high summer, beach-access villa, white sand below).
Taxe de séjour (6 people, mid-class) €70. Chef four dinners €2,000 plus food €1,200. Car hire €750.
All-in: about €66,020 for the week, roughly €9,430 a night for ten.
Headline: €150,000 / wk (apex week, full staff, a private path to the sand).
Taxe de séjour (10 people, top-class) €280. Chef for the week €4,500 plus food €3,000. Boat and skipper for two days €3,200.
All-in: about €160,980 before gratuities and a second day on the water.
Three levers move the all-in cost on a Porto-Vecchio week, and one of them is about reading the narrow coast roads honestly.
Take June or September instead of August. The sea is warm from June, September is calm and far quieter, and the same villa runs 40 to 60 percent below the August rate. With the beaches less crowded and the roads clear, the shoulder months are the obvious value play in southern Corsica.
Weigh beach access against the gulf view. A Palombaggia villa with a private path to the sand carries the largest premium here. A villa on the Cala Rossa gulf or up the hill gives the same coast and a short drive to the beach for less, and in August that drive is the trade most groups happily make to save real money.
Plan around the August beach traffic. The thing we would change about most first Porto-Vecchio trips is underestimating the coast roads. They are narrow and slow, the route to Palombaggia crawls in August, and beach parking fills early, so a villa with its own access, or an early start and a boat day, beats sitting in the queue for the sand.
Figari South Corsica Airport (FSC) is about 25 km from Porto-Vecchio and takes summer flights from Paris, Nice, and a spread of European cities, while Bastia is around two hours north for a wider schedule. Car ferries run from Marseille, Toulon, and Nice on the French mainland, and from Italian ports, to Bastia and Bonifacio, so many guests bring a car across by sea. A capable hire car is essential either way, because the beaches and villages sit at the end of narrow coast roads.
The summer weather is hot, dry, and reliable, the southern-Corsican sea is calm and clear, and the beaches at Palombaggia and Santa Giulia are the headline draw. The honest item is the roads and the August crowd: Corsican roads are narrow and winding, the drive to the beaches takes longer than the map suggests, and in peak August the coast route crawls and the beach car parks fill early. June and September give the same sea with room to move, which is why the shoulder weeks reward the flexible.
From about €22,000 per week for a four-bedroom in the June shoulder to €170,000 or more for a large beachfront estate at Cala Rossa or Palombaggia in peak August. Most quality five to six-bedrooms land between €58,000 and €115,000 per week in summer, with an August apex.
August is the apex, with July close behind, both 40 to 70 percent above the June and September shoulder. The southern-Corsican summer pulls demand into July and August, so the value sits in June and September, when the sea is warm and the beaches breathe.
France charges its reduced VAT rate of 10 percent on furnished tourist accommodation, built into the rate. The commune also levies a taxe de séjour by accommodation class, from €0.22 per adult per night for unclassified rentals up to a few euros for the top-classified. The taxe de séjour is not subject to VAT.
Figari South Corsica Airport (FSC) is about 25 km away with summer flights from Paris, Nice, and beyond, while Bastia is around two hours north. Car ferries run from Marseille, Toulon, and Nice, and from Italian ports, to Bastia and Bonifacio, so many guests bring a car across by sea.
Narrow, winding, and slow, and the coast between the beaches and villages takes longer to drive than the map suggests. In peak August the route to Palombaggia and Santa Giulia can crawl and beach parking fills early, which is why a beachfront villa with its own access is prized.
The beachfront estates at Cala Rossa and around the gulf, and the villas above Palombaggia and Santa Giulia with direct beach access, hold the top rates for their sand and calm water. Houses at Pinarello and toward Sainte-Lucie run strong, while inland and town villas run lower.
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When a gulf-side hotel beats a rental on the math. The beach restaurants worth the drive. The bars worth the evening in the old town.