Turnip Posted January 13, 2007 Share Posted January 13, 2007 Look under the "Reductions " tab...http://www.frenchestateagents.com/newdetails.php?ref=JSDV1740 The size of some reductions are amazing. Oversupply perhaps? greed?or overpriced due to poor condition/location etc? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bloodyestateagent Posted January 13, 2007 Share Posted January 13, 2007 The French vendor prefers to put a property on the market initially for the best price that they can expect to receive for it.If the property is unsold after x weeks then they may reduce the price.Lots of properties have multiple price reductions.To suggest that the French vendor is being greedy is quite insulting. They will often reduce the price till they find a buyer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterG Posted January 13, 2007 Share Posted January 13, 2007 The French vendor prefers to put a property on the market initially for the best price that they can expect to receive for it.Obviously trying to sucker the British purchaser Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dick Smith Posted January 13, 2007 Share Posted January 13, 2007 I think it's called market forces - why assume that they are doing something dishonest? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will Posted January 14, 2007 Share Posted January 14, 2007 Nobody says it's dishonest - over-optimism more likely.Certain agents will over-value in order to get an exclusive mandat, then have to reduce the price to the others' valuations, or below, to get a sale.And some sections of the market (e.g. unfinished projects) are very much over-supplied at present so sellers may be unlikely to even recoup their money.Will (married to another bloody estate agent) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoddy Posted January 14, 2007 Share Posted January 14, 2007 I think things are a little more realistic now than they were when we started looking for our house in 2001/2002.We were taken to see heaps of stone in the middle of a field miles from anywhere at silly prices.At one the rather twitchy estate agent said of the neighbour, "I don't think he'll shoot at us". There was a dispute over access. I think they were reflecting a widespread belief that the English would buy anything which seemed to be current at the time. That doesn't seem to be true any more. At least not in our neck of the woods.Hoddy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cooperlola Posted January 14, 2007 Share Posted January 14, 2007 [quote user="bloodyestateagent"]The French vendor prefers to put a property on the market initially for the best price that they can expect to receive for it.If the property is unsold after x weeks then they may reduce the price.Lots of properties have multiple price reductions.To suggest that the French vendor is being greedy is quite insulting. They will often reduce the price till they find a buyer.[/quote]Yeah, like a UK estate agent has never overestimated the value of a property! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BIG MAC Posted January 14, 2007 Share Posted January 14, 2007 Let's consider the reverse for a moment?Would anyone seriously start the selling process with their UK house at the lowest possible price? A lot of these French houses will come from split assets or inheritance, the French don't generally seem in a mad rush to push sales maybe it could be a case of agents promising the earth to get the property on their books, pretty much as Will says.I really don't worry too much about the purchase price of our house, we are so very lucky to have one and if our vendor (a delightful real salt of the earth chap and his lady wife) is anything to go by, we hope that we have helped ensure they will be comfortable should they ever choose to retire. We were amazed and delighted to be invited into the vendors new home and to meet their family over apperitifs etc. The family has other property for sale in our village and I would be sorely tempted but I don't think tht it would be good for the village for us to own an even larger unoccupied chunk and deprive local busnesses of potential trade, this is why when we are there we make a point of spending our money in the local shop.I would hate to see a similar situation as to Wales or Yorkshire where a large part of the population cannot afford to buy a property in their own birthplace and the inevitable sour grapes that follow, maybe price reductions aren't such a bad thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will Posted January 14, 2007 Share Posted January 14, 2007 [quote user="BIG MAC"]I would hate to see a similar situation as to Wales or Yorkshire where a large part of the population cannot afford to buy a property in their own birthplace and the inevitable sour grapes that follow, maybe price reductions aren't such a bad thing.[/quote]That's often thought to be the case in certain areas of France, where the British, or just as likely the Dutch or Germans, have been said to have priced the French out of the market. A more likely scenario is that it is lack of work in rural areas that force the young to move to the cities. The sort of houses that foreigners have historically tended to buy have been those that are less popular with French buyers anyway. But the foreigners in search of somewhere really cheap are going to places other than France now.There certainly are greedy sellers, but a lot fewer naive buyers now, so the over-priced houses tend to stick on the market a lot longer and have to be reduced if the sellers want to shift them - though often they are content to wait for the market to catch up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bloodyestateagent Posted January 14, 2007 Share Posted January 14, 2007 [quote user="PeterG"]The French vendor prefers to put a property on the market initially for the best price that they can expect to receive for it.Obviously trying to sucker the British purchaser[/quote]It may come as a bit of a shock but the world does not revolve around the British purchaser. A French vendor is still much more likely to sell to a French buyer.Obviously some properties are over priced. Some properties are overpriced in the UK too but we don't assume that the sellers are trying to sucker foreign buyers. However, it is quite common in France to use a bridging loan and buy your new home before you sell the old one. These bridging loans can only last for a set period of time, normally 12 or 24 months. If a property sticks at a price, and it draws towards the end of the bridging loan, you can quite often see some significant reductions.Again, it is quite insulting to suggest that French vendors are trying to 'sucker' British purchasers. If you feel this way about the French then why did you decide to buy in France? I wouldn't mind betting that one of the reasons that you have a second home in France is the affordability of property prices here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Llwyncelyn Posted January 14, 2007 Share Posted January 14, 2007 Hi Big Mac I originally come from the Rhondda Valley in South Wales and here it is not the case of not being able (as in most adjacent valleys) of being able to afford the price of a house it is very much the question of jobs to fund the purchase. Yes we in Wales have devolution but the jobs that are coming in are service type or low value jobs and the rewards are minimal. Most people have to leave the valleys to find jobs and then its Cardiff or Newport or whatever. WAG are trying so they say their best and have just paid for a railway line between Ebbw Vale and Cardiff. Why no work in Ebbw Vale steelworks and coal mines closed down.Again they have just paid millions for a new road through the Rhondda Valley why there is nothing there and I say that as a product of the Rhondda and so very proud of being so.Those jobs that come in with grant support stay the minimum period create the minimum jobs to qualify and then close down and move away. LG at Newport is a prize example of public money being wasted. Off topic but I thought the question of Wales should be addressed. rdgs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Llwyncelyn Posted January 14, 2007 Share Posted January 14, 2007 Hoddy we are moving from (50) and have identified Charente and the Charente Maritime. How far is that from Normandie say four five hours or even less to Cognac? I have trawled and I mean trawled the net for houses and I am amazed as to the difference between (50) and those areas. They seem to be holding their value. However I came across a site the other day which listed the date when a particular property was listed. Here there does seem to be a process of say eight to twelve months to dispose of some properties some longer. Will has the inside straight on this and I just wondered what his experience is on the current market in Normandie. Will the hike in rates back home hit France I wondered as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Llwyncelyn Posted January 14, 2007 Share Posted January 14, 2007 Good evening BloodyestateAgent.As to bridging loans I was chatting to CA Britline the other day on an unrealted matter and they know I am moving so they suggested if I was stuck to take a bridging loan. Call me old-fashioned but being in 'the law' unless I have a signature on my contract then I am not going to borrow money from the bank.Thats me others take a differing approach.However the economics interest me as to bridging loans. CA say if I have a signature on my contract they will advance 80% if no signature 50%. So if I buy at 300k then without a signature I borrow 150000 euros where does the remainder come from.............savings?I would be worried front end with relatively inflated values for that would really pose some questions down the line and I would not like to play fast and loose with the future of either my wife or myself. However I am from a differing era but I always like to know what the very worse downside is then build back up from there.If we are saying that houses are pitched high to start with what do we call high are they say inflated by 15% to 20% and if so should I look at any given house do some arithmetic and offer 25% lower and hope then to get back to 20%quite an interesting topic in that our Estate Agent and who I have known for over 30 years looked after us so very well when he sold our UK property. However there is history between us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GUEPE Posted January 14, 2007 Share Posted January 14, 2007 bonjour .we bought our property in the dordogne through 'french estates agents in rochebeaucourt -argentine .dealing personally with a great guy john woolley and found them very easy to deal with ,nothing was too much trouble and there aftersales help is exactly what they say it is on there website .as to how much a property is worth ,who knows ,not unless you are a property developer or something !we are delighted to have the opportunity to live in the dordogne . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will Posted January 14, 2007 Share Posted January 14, 2007 [quote user="Llwyncelyn"]Will has the inside straight on this and I just wondered what his experience is on the current market in Normandie. Will the hike in rates back home hit France I wondered as well.[/quote]If I knew the answer to that I could get rich overnight. The latest price rises in Britain have not been mirrored in France (yet). As to Normandy, sensibly priced houses up to say 120,000€ are still selling, dearer ones are slower, overpriced places continue to stick on the books. But the bit of the market I know about is that which sells mainly to British and Dutch. As BEA points out, believe it or not, the French do actually buy quite a lot of houses in France, and it is what they are doing, and the state of their economy, that primarily governs the market.The pret relais is somewhat better accepted than the English bridging loan. But then the French do not, as a rule, get into this stupid chain business, where several people have to complete their sales all on the same day. They prefer to take a loan for a few weeks or even months so they can move, carry out repairs etc at their leisure and move in gradually when the new place is ready. Just a difference in culture. We've done it that way and can thoroughly recommend it, though I agree that you need a signature on a compromis, or two or pretty serious buyers, before it becomes wise to takeout a loan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Salty Sam Posted January 14, 2007 Share Posted January 14, 2007 [quote user="PeterG"]The French vendor prefers to put a property on the market initially for the best price that they can expect to receive for it.Obviously trying to sucker the British purchaser[/quote]When it comes to suckering the British purchaser, you've got a long way to go to beat the British seller! Why on earth some Brits think they can renovate a ruin and then sell it on at London prices beats me. But there again, if Brits are daft enought to pay, so be it.[8-)] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will Posted January 15, 2007 Share Posted January 15, 2007 [quote user="Salty Sam"]When it comes to suckering the British purchaser, you've got a long way to go to beat the British seller! Why on earth some Brits think they can renovate a ruin and then sell it on at London prices beats me. But there again, if Brits are daft enought to pay, so be it.[8-)][/quote]Why are some people so uncharitable towards their fellow countrymen?The reason for most cases of British sellers insisting on high asking prices is that they need to recover the cost of the house and the work subsequently carried out on it. The fact that this is not achievable says something in itself - have they been misled? And by whom? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maude Posted January 15, 2007 Share Posted January 15, 2007 Hi folks.Looking generally around France whist holidaying away from the Sud Vendee,we are not surprised at the property reductions.Everywhere seems to have a rash of new build lotissements of the standard beige bungalows,and looking at the new build prices,they are many euros below a "character" house ancienne with all their faults.Dont know where "they" are all coming from to buy these.I,m certainly glad I dont have any rental property as a dubious investment- I would be seriously concerned about the future.It will look very bland here in the future.C,est la vie! Maude Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunday Driver Posted January 15, 2007 Share Posted January 15, 2007 New build lotissements often include "starter homes" so that young families can get on the property ladder. There are various state subsidies and schemes to help them do so.Given that newer houses are better insulated and cheaper to buy and maintain, it's no surprise that many French prefer them to older and more expensive "character houses". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simaxis Posted January 15, 2007 Share Posted January 15, 2007 Does anybody think the French property market is cooling? Could now be a good time to buy? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Riff-Raff Element Posted January 16, 2007 Share Posted January 16, 2007 Another consideration that attenuates the movements in the market in France are the restrictions on borrowing levels that are imposed in law - the French are simply not allowed to borrow more than they are believed by the state to be able to sustain. Whatever the rights and wrongs of this approach to governing how people live their lives, it does mean that rises in the bulk of the property market (the 95% or whatever that are sales by French sellers to French buyers) are linked quite closely to average earnings. There was an article about this in Ouest France a while ago, but I've set fire to it.... Nonetheless, there are plenty of optimistic sellers out there (particularly in rural areas) who remain convinced that an army of Brits with suitcases full of used notes just itching to buy their house. Some (most?) sober up after a while, particularly if they really need to sell. Some, like one of our neighbours, are under no real pressure to sell and sit their houses on the market at silly prices, just hoping someone will be daft enough. To be fair to our neighbour, I don't think he'd really care who bought his house: he's just convinced that a Brit is the most likely purchaser. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WJT Posted January 16, 2007 Share Posted January 16, 2007 Yes, but Jon you are in the particularly nice bit. What about the rest of us? [:D] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Riff-Raff Element Posted January 16, 2007 Share Posted January 16, 2007 [quote user="WJT"]Yes, but Jon you are in the particularly nice bit. What about the rest of us? [:D][/quote]Fair point, fair point. How this logic would apply to bits that were merely very nice or even just nice I cannot begin to say. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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