How much are ordinary houses in your area? The type that real French people would buy?

[woody234]

you sound like someone in your 30's looking for a perfect house in france, you say you get your 50%  inheritence from the sale of your moms house when it sells but if the market doesnt improve it may never happen, surley the housing market in france and the uk is relative so if your house in the uk goes down 10% then the house you like in france goes down 10%, you say your mum panicked and found somthing out of the county where i could continue to study french, did you mean she found another college course for you or she quickly sold her house and brought another one someone where you could study french, surley you could have  studied french in any county in england  in the 1980's or 1990's, your maybe a teacher thats in her 30's with young kids thats not sure where to settle in france or italy, why dont you give it a few years untill you know what you really want, niort has a fantastic market maybe on fridays or saturdays and also lots of shops and a geant

[hoverfrog]

there is no perfect house - in France or otherwise. There is only the "perfect house for you".

I think the OP needs to think about why they are looking for a property in France, and why France. Once they have defined their views then perhaps they can go looking - although in keeping with the subject line the answer often is how much the property is wanted, and how much you are prepared to pay.

[Jill<br><br>Jill (99)]

[quote user="woody234"]you sound like someone in your 30's looking for a perfect house in france, you say you get your 50%  inheritence from the sale of your moms house when it sells but if the market doesnt improve it may never happen, surley the housing market in france and the uk is relative so if your house in the uk goes down 10% then the house you like in france goes down 10%, you say your mum panicked and found somthing out of the county where i could continue to study french, did you mean she found another college course for you or she quickly sold her house and brought another one someone where you could study french, surley you could have  studied french in any county in england  in the 1980's or 1990's, your maybe a teacher thats in her 30's with young kids thats not sure where to settle in france or italy, why dont you give it a few years untill you know what you really want, niort has a fantastic market maybe on fridays or saturdays and also lots of shops and a geant[/quote]

No, sorry, it was the the mid-70's and I went to a secondary school which went comprehensive when I was 14, the careers advice I had only led me to do a secretarial course and I couldn't do one with French in my own county.  We had to make a special application for me to go on a secretarial course with French over the border - 3 miles away and had to pay for exams and claim them back because I was out of county.  If I had had suitable advice at the time, I would have studied for O levels at college and then perhaps gone on to study French at university, but we were not aware that I could have done that.  I did A level French at an evening class when I was 19.  I do know exactly what I want and roughly where I want it.  I'm not really looking for the perfect house, but something very simple.  Just a terraced house really.  You see lots of them around, but perhaps they aren't the sort of houses that go onto the market very often.  I do know what I really want.  I've spent a lot of time in France in many different regions, either visiting friends, camping or renting gites.  We did once stay in a gite in Normandy which was just the sort of thing I would like, but I've not seen that sort of thing for sale.  I'll try some of the other websites suggested some time, but haven't got the time I need to do that at the moment.

[hoverfrog]

there are sites that tell you the average price per m3, however they can be misleading as they only deal in averages for a wide geographical area.

The best bet is usually to look in the adverts and see what the immobilier are offering in a particular area/state of renovation/whatever.

No easy answers - anything is only worth what someone is prepared to pay.

I would say to go away and define what exactly you are looking for, but chances are you will find your ideal/dream place and it won't be any of those things!

Bon chance in the search though :)

[SaligoBay]

[quote user="Jill"][ I'd prefer to be somewhere where we can really integrate with the French - which is why I'd prefer a small town or large village.  [/quote]

A small town will only give you, what, up to 30 000 French people to integrate with.   Downtown Lyon or Marseille will give you half a million or more!    And once you're in a city, you have butchers, bakers, and candlestickmakers galore, right on your doorstep, and train connections to other places too.    And the countryside will still be there for you to go and commune with when you feel the need.

 

[SaligoBay]

[quote user="Jill"][ I'd prefer to be somewhere where we can really integrate with the French - which is why I'd prefer a small town or large village.  [/quote]

A small town will only give you, what, up to 30 000 French people to integrate with.   Downtown Lyon or Marseille will give you half a million or more!    And once you're in a city, you have butchers, bakers, and candlestickmakers galore, right on your doorstep, and train connections to other places too.    And the countryside will still be there for you to go and commune with when you feel the need.

 

[Ian]

Jill, there are plenty of terraced houses for sale all over France - your "ideal" home or close to it is out there. I'd echo seloger and logic-immo as good websites for initial research ... there are a few others too...but if you are genuinely without the time to look at websites I fear you may find it difficult to find your house.  House hunting pre-world wide web was even more time consuming.

The title of the thread is one of those piece-of-string type queries ... but I'd hazard a guess based on your demands ..errr... something like €90-220k around here (Tarn/Aude/Haute Garonne confluence).

[Jill<br><br>Jill (99)]

Thanks - I had a look on se loger tonight, and you are right - there are quite a few houses there which interest me.  Drome Provencal looks quite promising.  It was one of the areas I'd been considering following a holiday in Malaucene a couple of years ago.  I now need to work out if we can pull in a few days in that area towards the end of our summer holiday.