some areas of france are cheaper to buy houses / barns...

[Blade]

what do people think of the department where there are cheaper houses/barns for sale . do they find the regions as good as any others? worth investing in? i usually believe if it is cheap there is probably a downside to it. any tips appreciated.

[Patf]

If property is particularly cheap in an area it's usually because there's no work/jobs available. Sometimes other factors might come in eg prone to flooding. Other people will have more ideas, but it's the old story of demand and supply.

[sue702]

France is not tradtionally a good country for "investing" in property. In recent years the prices have gone up due to foreigners coming in, but I wouldn't bank on that lasting. Buy a property you like where you want to live or where you want to have your holidays and don't think you will make a fortune reselling.

I agree with Patf, cheap areas have no jobs or are undesirable for some other reason, if you don't need a job and the other reason doesn't matter to you, then you have got yourself a bargain!

Happy hunting

Sue

[Dormouse]

We are moving to what we consider to be a reasonably cheap area next month - Loire departement. We have a beautiful town house for approx £80K, three beds + attic room + sejour, sitting room etc. The area is beautiful and the people that we have met already are friendly and helpful, with a wonderful immobilier who can't do enough to help us (and he speaks perfect English) (probably because he IS English!!)

I don't think it's a cheap area because there's something wrong with it, but because it hasn't yet been "discovered" by the Brits & other foreigners buying up houses there. Our immobilier has French people trying to get silly prices for their homes because "the English will pay the money".

It is becoming more popular as the Lyonnaise buy holiday homes, and as the ski-ing areas become more popular as well.

Interestingly, the towns people that we have met became much more friendly and helpful when they discovered we were planning to live in the town and not just use the house as a holiday home...

[Logan]

One of the loveliest and cheapest regions to buy good substantial property with land is the Limousin. (Departments 19,23 & 87). A very traditional region with little else but lovely rolling countryside and a way of life that has not changed for generations. The reason property is so cheap is because there is no employment. The tourist market is very underdeveloped, there is no wine production, very few identifiable attractions. The principal economy is mainly impoverished and heavily subsidised farming.

In other words the Limousin is the perfect place to invest for the future if capital gains and a peaceful way of life is what you seek. It will be long term but in my opinion it is a region that will grow in every sense of the word in the future. It has a new airport, rail links are great and new motorways are coming on stream. All the signs are in place for a regional boom.

Where else in France can you still buy and large unrenovated farmhouse, outbuildings and land with beautiful views for under fifty grand? (Sterling) Buy now before its too late folks. 

[goose]

We've just bought on the Limousin/Lot borders. Plenty of towns, lots of attractions, lovely scenery and the dordogne river 3 miles from our front door. Really pretty towns already gone up in price but yes, there are some apparent bargains to be had in the area. One word of warning though, you are right on the edge of the massif central there and unless you view in the winter (as we did) you could be in for a shock if you buy the cheaper stuff up in the hills. It all looks lovely in the sunshine but this year - admittedly an exceptionally cold one - some of the houses we looked at had impassable roads and we're very very isolated indeed.

Bear in mind that the £50k bargains may not be habitable and renovations in France are very expensive compared to UK DIY shop prices. EG ordinary white emulsion paint €66/5litres. The word habitable to a french estate agent doesn't mean the same as it does to us Brits. We saw some shockers that were claimed to be habitable but didn't have bathrooms, kitchens, sewage systems etc. In French, habitable just means the roof is mostly ok, sometimes not even that.

Having said that we completed this summer on a 2 bedroom habitable (by UK standards!) stone built house with a second derelict house attached, stone built barn and a large garden (not a small holding!) for £65k so we're well happy.

Good luck!

 

[Mpprh]

[quote]France is not tradtionally a good country for "investing" in property. In recent years the prices have gone up due to foreigners coming in, but I wouldn't bank on that lasting. Buy a property you li...[/quote]

Hmm

 

in our area the foreigners are from Paris. With the 35 hr week and the TGV, they now arrive in time for dinner on Friday nights.

 

Peter

 

 

[letrangere]

Article in August's Living France on the Correze in the southern Limousin.  Les Agences du Limousin at aptly named Beaulieu advertising "a very beautiful barn to restore very close to the Dordogne river with excellent views and in a small hamlet" for Euros 25,800.  Elsewhere, Richard Bovill of said agency remarks, "If we get a barn for around Euros 50,000 we can sell it straight away." 

Someone sensibly mentions importance of winter house hunting but even away from the eastern fringes where it gets very cold (as does the eastern Lot), doesn't everyone find the Limousin pretty damp?  It is glorious on a summer's day but I thought parts of the region, especially around the Plateau de Millevaches, were the wettest in western Europe?

M

[Alexis]

A bit back, I posted about seeing a programme on French telly about the new area chosen by the British and I am sure it was the Limousin.

The locals were rubbing their hands with glee and people were buying very cheaply - for them - and talk turned to B&B and gites.

Bit like Brittany twenty years ago.

[Kayjay<P> <P><P>"Passer sa vie à lutter contre la connerie est le meilleur procédé pour mourir dépuisement."<P>]

Speaking from own experiences of owning two properties in the Limousin area, I'd tread a little carefully.  Over the years I had awful problems with burglaries etc.  In one property, a holiday home, I returned to find the fireplaces had been stripped out and a few months later the main staircase followed (and, no, I'm not exagerating!)  The local flics suggested I pretended to leave and then camped inside with a shot-gun - they did point out that I would have to do a good job on any "visitors" as it would then be my word aginst theirs as to exactly what transpired and if they were no longer in any condition to speak ever again, then - "Bouf....."  This was a water-mill property and I spoke with another owner a little up-stream who lived there 11 months of the year, going to visit his Parisian in-laws at Xmas.  His place was very well-secured but he had a feeling he was being watched and asked the local police to keep an eye on the house during his absence, which they allegedly did.  On his return all was well, until he got in the house and discovered that "they" had put up some stolen scaffolding round the back of the property, removed part of the roof and stripped the place bare.

My other house, on the outskirts of a village and with neighbours permanently there, was burgled 3 times - I should say BURGLED, because they must have used trucks or large vans to shift everything.  The local police reckoned it was an armed gang from Limoges (on what basis I was unable to ascertain!) and were most concerned not to be around, just in case.  We also twice ended up with fruit-picking squatters, who were not the most considerate of tenants...  Other people in the village were burgled while they slept.

However, as they say in the US "your mileage may vary..."