A French Virgin

[tg5769]

Hello everyone

My family are wishing to move to the Rhone Alps region of France, we are a family of 6, my wife and myself and our 4 children, we feel that we can give our children and ourselves alot better life if we move, we are all very fond of sports, especially skiing.

I am at present selling our property in the UK, I will have approximately 200,000 to spend on a property, I will also need a mortgage though to increase this.

I would like some info please:

I need an area where there are schools for children between 3 and 12, within approximately an hour of the ski slopes
A respectable mortgage company

I do not need work because I work from my pc, I can run my business anywhere.

Any advice would be greatfully received!

Kind regards

Trev

[Nearly Retired (I am now)]

Curmudgeon mode ON!

Why do so many people go to a forum site and lazily ask for very general advice? If you really want to go through with your plan my recommendation is to firstly spend hours, hours and hours trawling this site and others to get a feel of what's going on. Then get of your bottom, get looking on site so to speak, do plenty of driving, walking and talking.

Then come back and ask specifics.

Curmudgeon mode OFF! 

[andyh4]

Most towns and cities have schools for the ages of your children - the choice may argueably be a bit greater than in the UK, but some smaller towns are begininning to loose their upper schools in a drive for efficiency.  Choose the wrong town and your children could be commuting 40km per day to go to school.

Banks operate mortgage lending - and all are respectable (AFAIK).  Bigger banks may be more accommodating than smaller ones, and be aware that most bank chains are in fact regional banks affliated to/franchised with a central organisation.

Now for a reality check

200K will not go far for a house for 6 people (based on UK ideas of space) in Rhone Alpes - at least not in the areas I think you will be looking at.    One exception may be the Vercors, but the skiing is more X country than downhill.  Even here prices have risen dramatically.

Working in France, your income will fall dramatically due to the cotisations (like NI paymanets and pension) - although taxes are roughly equivalent or even slightly less than the UK.  Expect to loose up to 60% of your income to various government bodies.

Banks will base their lending for a mortgage on your proven ability to pay (they are very risk averse.).  Your equity of 200K in the property will count for little.

 

If you are still up to it - then do as is suggested above - do an awful lot of homework and come back with some more concrete questions

[Teamedup]

We live in the Rhone Alps just over an hour from world reknowned ski resorts. €300K usually won't buy you a lot in this region. Or did you mean €200k, which would get you next to nothing. Look at immoblier sites for the region, there are plenty of web sites about. So as you said you may need a  mortgage, these  are based on earnings, so you would need to see a bank about that all the main banks do them.

You will have to register your business in France if you are working from France and this is costly as the cotisations are expensive.

[Stocky]

[quote user="Nearly Retired"]

Curmudgeon mode ON!

Why do so many people go to a forum site and lazily ask for very general advice? If you really want to go through with your plan my recommendation is to firstly spend hours, hours and hours trawling this site and others to get a feel of what's going on. Then get of your bottom, get looking on site so to speak, do plenty of driving, walking and talking.

Then come back and ask specifics.

Curmudgeon mode OFF! 

[/quote]

Although this will bring an uproar from those with 1k+ entries who are willing to answer silly questions I fully agree with the above statement, there are so many questions asked that with a little basic research would be answered.  I get surprised by some of the basic questions that appear on this site, then the swarm of responses, some excellent, some questionable.

Nearly Retired and myself can now sit back and watch the oncoming onslaught.

[Debra]

Here is a place to start re property prices: http://www.frenchpropertylinks.com/buying.asp?rr=RA - but a search on 'immobilier rhone' or a particular town name instead of 'rhone' will find you plenty of sites to research on.  You normally need to ask exactly where a house is to be able to investigate the schooling available and a lot of agents won't tell you this in case you intend to try and find the house yourself and cut them out of their commission.  However, if you are interested in a particular area, this site: http://management.journaldunet.com/ville/ville/accueil/36661/rhone.shtml  shows a lot of information about a particular department or town including what schools are there.  I chose the area - scroll down the page to to see college results.  If you enter a town name instead of an area, you can click on 'Emploi Formation' and scroll down to see ' Etablissements scolaires' - then click on the type of school you are looking for to see where they are.  Have a play around the site - there is all sorts of useful information on it.

We all have to start somewhere.  I hope this post is useful, unlike a couple of others in this thread, who should have just ignored the thread, in my view.

[rumble]

You could check out www.home-hunts.com and look through their properties by the area you are interested in. I think the Pyrenees are going to be a better bet than the Alps; however, having said that, there are a few bargains to be had in Briancon, Southern Alps, and there are lots of good schools there. We just bought a 3 bed apartment there for 169,000E. Fill out an enquiry form with homehunts; these guys are property search professionals and specialise in finding property in the South of France; whatever the budget. Good luck!

[Viv]

Using a mortgage broker may be a better and quicker option than applying to individual banks, as they usually have a better idea of which banks  will lend what to whom and thus it can save time and heartbreak. We used one and found the service excellent and we got a got a good mortgage.

[Evianers]

We have a property in Evian-les-Bains on Lake Geneva. Thank goodness we bought in 2003 as prices have risen by 69% in our area since we bought. If you look in the hinterland = without a view of the lake - you will probably find something run-down for 200,000 pounds, but as others have said, 200,000 euros - forget it! You might find a dilapidated barn with no running water for that price. However, on the positive side, search under Eurovisa Immobilier in Thonon who have a large range of properties in the area. The schools in Thonon are quite good too. You need to do a great deal more research - we looked for 7 years and then made some mistakes due to lack of experience of how differently things work in France.

[Pangur]

The Rhone Alps is a fantastic place for outdoor activities, but like the others have said, you'll be hard pushed finding a family home within easy access of schools for €300,000.  Even finding a dilapidated barn is difficult in Haute Savoie (74) - the Swiss seem just as keen as the Brits on home improvement and Genveva wages and new bilateral agreements with Switzerland help push up the prices around here.

Having said that, the unemployment figures are lower in this region than elsewhere in France and Haute Savoie is pretty prosperous so I would imagine the opportunties for your kids are increased.  To start you off, Annecy is a beautiful town, with plenty of schools- while suburban property is not cheap, there's lots of building and houses there.  We found www.paravendu.fr or www.seloger.com advertise a lot of houses in 74 and can give you an idea of what's available.

 

[tg5769]

Thank you very much for the helpful replies, having 4 children does not really allow me much time to go to France for 6 weeks and look around at my leisure so the advice given is very helpful,

Thanks once again

Trev

 

[Teamedup]

I hope that you are not depending  on posters to find you somewhere that will suit all your needs. We rented when we first came and I would never have bought in another country without knowing what it was like.

 

 Schools and after school activities may well influence where you will end up. Bearing in mind that the big towns and cities are always better served for all these things than the campagne. Towns and cities and their banilieu are usually expensive though.  

 

Also not all of France has ADSL and if you work from your computer that may also be something else to take into account.

 

Re sarcastic hogwash, was that comment necessary.

[tg5769]

Hi Teamedup

Your right, it was not really neccessary, edited it, having a bad day.

Trev

[Lilly]

I can't help with the location part of your question but for the mortgage, I personaly feel that some of these brokers that advertise are unqualified and to a large extent unregulated and can give un founded advice with no come back if it should prove to be detrimental, try in the first instance the banks like Abbey National, Credit Agricole etc ( if I am allowed to mention specifics!!) as they can help give you all the advice relating to a Morgage in France as whilst they a fundementally similar there are some legal differences that I  know these brokers do not inform you of, due to lack of knowledge or god forbid neglect. This is not meant to be scare mungering as a mortgage here proved to be very practle and relativly staight forward to aquire if a little lengthly just make sure you know what your mortgage entails like tie in periods, how long the mortgage will run for after you have paid it off, early repayment penalties, any assignments (in our case a large sum of money deposited in a life assurance bond!which we were not notified of exsisting until after the signed compromis de vente and thus funds had to be found\borrowed tout suite!As this did not fit the clause suspensive of a mortgage needed as the bank would give us a mortgage!) you know the rules sign nothing if you can't read it, assume nothing. This incidently for us was 3 years ago and still has me growling

[Patf]

Someone mentioned the Pyrenees as an alternative, and I would support

this. Husband goes skiing there and has met lots of people who have

changed from skiing in the Alps to the Pyrenees - fewer crowds and

cheaper altogether including housing. Pat.

[andyh4]

Lilly

you mention Abbey National - however they have sold their French mortage business on to the Mortgage department of Paribas.  This has caused a bit of a stir for some people who lost the "free" transfer of funds from Abbey UK to Abbey France in order to pay for their monthly charges.  Personally I had no problem with this since I had free transfer anyway.

 

 

[bigjimbishop]

If you get the property list from the local Notaire's (Solicitor)

 office you may find a better deal than the UK and Dutch owned estate agents, now seems to be a good time of year for a bargain as well.

I'm shocked at the prices down south!

Here you can buy 2 gite sized cottages with a spring and an acre of land for

70,000 Euro.

jim

[Opalienne]

[quote user="bigjimbishop"]Here you can buy 2 gite sized cottages with a spring and an acre of land for
70,000 Euro.
jim


[/quote]

 

Where is 'here'?

[bigjimbishop]

We are in the Morvan National Parc, Bourgogne

[Just Katie]

Yes Where Where???? Pyrenees, The secret of the French.  We stayed there for a week last summer and have have friends who ski there regularly.  I found it very pretty and the cost of living is more amiable

[Opalienne]

[quote user="bigjimbishop"]We are in the Morvan National Parc, Bourgogne
[/quote]

 

We were on holiday a couple of years ago in Quarre Les Tombes and thought it was wonderful - and the property was really cheap.   Plus you have the advantage of being able to get anywhere in France in a day...... But doesn't it get horribly cold in the winter?   We are really tempted to move there when I retire and am able to stop commuting during the week.

[bigjimbishop]

Bourgogne is half way between Paris and Geneva so not really skiing country.

As for the cold winter I've been out in the garden digging today in shorts....I don't reckon anyone in the UK was doing that.

It gets cold in the winter but you don't get the 4 months of damp like UK.

My pals from Leicester just rocked up here last monday and bought the first propery they saw.

I've been looking through the lists they got online and locally and the prices are still very reasonable.

This is a very rural area so you need to have an income/pension organized.

Loads of painters and artists live here due to the beauty, but I guess this is true in most of France.

[Opalienne]

[quote user="bigjimbishop"]As for the cold winter I've been out in the garden digging today in shorts....I don't reckon anyone in the UK was doing that.
[/quote]

We were in the Pas de Calais and there was no way we were going in the garden at all - 1C this afternoon!   So maybe we will consider seriously a move to the Morvan........ I was also really impressed by the number of shops and facilities there were in Quarre les Tombes - only a small place but there were two general stores, a white goods shop, a clothes/souvenir shop, an excellent butcher, a charcuterie (also excellent), two boulangeries, a pharmacist, three restaurants and two cafes.  In our village there is one boulangerie, only open in the mornings, and one cafe, just reopened after two years.   Locals in Q l T explained to us that it was because lots of Parisians have weekend houses there.    This was the only place in France I have ever been where they weren't rude about Parisians, saying that they helped the local economy and were not stuck up or superior when they arrived.