The French Property Scene

As I get more and more involved with French property as a result of my activities as both a property finder and an “agent commercial”, I have been trying to assess the state of the property market in France, particularly of course in the Perigord Vert. So what is going on according to those supposedly in the know?

Well the latest figures published by the ‘Notaires de France’ show that prices have fallen nationally by 3% in 2012 although this figure hides some notable falls in certain areas and rises in others (prices around Toulouse for example have actually risen by 4.5%). Over the past year, FNAIM, the national association of French estate agents, reports that house prices have fallen by an average of 1.3%. There has also been a substantial fall in property sales with both Notaires and estate agents reporting a slump of around 20% in the volume of sales despite the record low mortgage rates. As with the UK market, much of this is to do with the banks that have introduced tougher lending criteria with the result that mortgage lending is down by around 30% in the past year.

In this region, there has certainly not been a noticeable drop in prices actually asked this year but I have noticed that sellers are being more realistic about accepting offers below their asking price and this seems to have sustained the market here and kept things moving. This means that 2012 has been a buyers’ market and I think that this will continue into 2013. Properties needing total renovation are also in the frame again as are part renovated properties which are habitable though in need of some finishing, as long as the price is realistic and reflects the work to be done.

A great example of this is a property that I have recently taken on to market through Allez-Francais. It is a former railway station that was converted (rather badly) some years ago into three apartments but it has been empty for some years now and is looking rather sorry for itself. It is a large property that would make either a fine family home or perhaps a bed and breakfast property. It was on the market for €260,000 and was attracting zero interest. I advised the owners that if they really wanted to sell, they needed to lower the price significantly to reflect the renovation work that would be required. It is now on the market for just €159,000 (about £130,000) and is attracting a lot of interest. Have a look at it here.

In addition, demand for good quality properties in good locations is also strong, thanks to a lack of domestic buyers which has opened up opportunities for British and international buyers to snap up desirable properties. Click here to see an example of another property that I have just taken into my portfolio that very much fits the "quality property" tag. I really enjoyed myself photographing this one!

So how to sum up the property market in this region in 2012? Well, despite the continued uncertainty in the Euro-zone, France stays consistent in its appeal to foreign buyers and I can’t see that the wish to own a small part of this beautiful country will be changing any time soon. Certainly the lower risk factor of buying property here keeps buyers and investors interested and the very low mortgage rates, tight controls and the uncertain Euro mean that French houses are still very good value. And while property in this region hasn’t been reduced to bargain basement prices, it generally remains well under UK averages with plenty of properties available within any budget. So despite the widely varied reports on the market from different sectors of the industry, 2012 has been a relatively stable year for property in this region. Sellers have become more realistic about the price they are likely to get and so long as buyers are reasonably flexible in the kind of property they are looking for and the compromises they are prepared to make, there are some outstanding bargains to be had.

I don’t think anyone knows quite what is going to happen with the Euro or the financial climate generally but I have every confidence that, for anyone who wants a beautiful French house in a stunning location combined with a fantastic quality of life and a lovely climate, this is one of the better places in the world to spend your money on property.

Of course that is just a personal viewpoint from someone who has no regrets at all about having made the move to live and work in France!

Tricky Business

It is five months since we arrived in Busserolles – I cannot believe how fast the time has gone, nor how much we have achieved in that time. We have found and bought and moved into our new house. We have managed to get integrated within the rather complex French healthcare system, including the holy grail attainment of a French social security number (we have met English people over here who have been trying for two years to get that far!).

I have now got three businesses up and running (more about this below) and I have even paid my first tax instalment!

Our life here has settled into an agreeable routine. The baker’s van from the next village comes up to see us in the new house every Wednesday and Saturday. On the other days of the week I wander down to the village post office to collect my bread from the Busserolles baker (following his fire in August he has been baking in another village but drops off the bread to order – he hopes to be back into his Busserolles base before Christmas), stopping along the way to chat to the regulars I always seem to meet (average age around 85 I think but they are a hardy bunch who seem to be out and about in all weathers and always happy to chat to the Englishman).

The covered terrace at Le Clos des Chenes

Since our meeting with the Mayor and his council members in September, the Mayor and his clerk, Martine, have been incredibly helpful. Six weeks after they had written to the Conseil General for the Dordogne (a bit like an English County Council) to seek guidance as to how far back from the road our fence line would need to be, nothing had been heard. With our fencing contractor due to arrive this week, I called in to see if there was any update. The Mayor overheard my conversation with Martine and, clearly not best pleased that no reply had been received, called the Conseil General himself and spoke animatedly to some poor chap for about 10 minutes. True to his word though, the following morning an official arrived and proceeded to survey the road and the edge of our field. It took him an hour after which six luminous green stakes had been planted.

The fencing plan for Le Clos de Chenes

You might expect, as I did, that these stakes marked the fence line that we should follow. “Non” declared the surveyor. His luminous green stakes he explained marked a line that was 50cm in front of the line where we should erect the fence – obviously!

Anyway, back to business. In addition to my property photography business and my property finding business (www.i-spypropertyfinders.com) I have now got a third (and I think final) strand on the go. My status as a registered ‘agent commercial’ has enabled me to take up the offer from my friend Peter Elias to develop a property portfolio to sell through Peter’s Allez-Francais on-line estate agency. Covering the North Dordogne and the South East of the Charente, I will be looking to take on good quality properties for sale and to give them the I-Spy360 treatment with a mixture of quality still photographs, virtual tours and floorplans.

The first property in my estate agent's portfolio

Things have got off to a good start and in the first ten days I have taken on instructions to sell two houses, both of them beautifully renovated old farmhouses. Now though, I have hit a bit of a roadblock.

The nature of all three of my businesses means that I need access to the internet. To get access to the internet I need a telephone line. And thanks to Orange/France Telecom, as I write this I have neither.

I alerted Orange to our pending house move on the 31^st August, six weeks ahead of time. Despite my protests that I would not be able to work without telephone or internet after we had moved out of the rented house in the middle of October, the earliest date they eventually promised to get me hooked up was 7^th November. I even wrote to the Chief Executive of Orange in France to complain about how his organisation’s poor service was impacting my business! He clearly took notice and I have now had several conversations with a customer service adviser who was personally allocated to my account. Whilst they were unable to act any faster than the 7^th November, she received reassurances from the contractors that everything would be resolved and I received confirmation that a technician would arrive at 10am.

The outcome was spectacular – we waited in all day on the 7^th and nothing happened!

I received a call from the contractor at about 6pm to say that they would not now be coming until the 9^th but would arrive at 8am. As I write this blog, on the 9^th, the technician has just arrived – it’s 10.30am!

If you are reading this blog and it is only mid November then you will know that he has got us successfully connected to the outside world and business as usual can recommence.