NSN Posted December 2, 2011 Share Posted December 2, 2011 We bought our holiday house in France in 07 (top of the market!) for 150k and have spent 50k on renovation with another 30k worth to go. Current value probably not more than 180k.We can still afford the payments (so long as we keep working) but wonder whether its time to cut the losses and put the money somewhere else or keep t for the long term.Anyone else having the same thoughts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NormanH Posted December 2, 2011 Share Posted December 2, 2011 Get out while you can Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NSN Posted December 2, 2011 Author Share Posted December 2, 2011 Have you moved back to UK? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NormanH Posted December 2, 2011 Share Posted December 2, 2011 No, I live here permanently, and have done for a long time.That is not the same thing as having money tied up in a holiday home in another country. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anton Redman Posted December 2, 2011 Share Posted December 2, 2011 If you have fallen out of love with the place and know what you would do with the money cut and run. In five years time for instance French property market might be better but the £ might be up to € 1.50.I know renovation is more expensive than build but £ 30,000 is a lot of money. Part those items till you are retired and fiish slowly with your own labour if you still like the place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NSN Posted December 2, 2011 Author Share Posted December 2, 2011 Dont know if you mix with expats. Are many moving back where you are? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NormanH Posted December 2, 2011 Share Posted December 2, 2011 I live in a largely immigrant quarter, and only two of them are British. Both would leave if they could but are trapped by circumstances.One is trying to get the RSA because he can't get the dole in Manchester, and the other wants to leave but is asking too much for his house, though this might change as he becomes increasingly desperate.I don't know any 'ex-pats' as firms don't tend to send their people here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NickP Posted December 2, 2011 Share Posted December 2, 2011 [quote user="NSN"]Dont know if you mix with expats. Are many moving back where you are?[/quote]As far as I know the only ones moving back to the UK from our region, Loir Et Cher, are younger couples who can't find work. Most people here are retired or their holiday homes are paid for. While I sympathise with your situation, I've always thought that it would be lunacy to buy an expensive holiday home on a mortgage or loans. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NSN Posted December 2, 2011 Author Share Posted December 2, 2011 We still enjoy the place and hopefully it'll be paid in time to retire there. Interested in whether you and others still see France as a long term good bet.Accept that we would make a loss selling now but long term hope to have something to leave to our son. Thoughts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pommier Posted December 2, 2011 Share Posted December 2, 2011 If you still like the house, the area and France, then I wouldn't sell up. Although there's lots of doom and gloom on forums most people we know don't want to move back to the UK. If you had the cash instead of your French house, where would you invest it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert the InfoGipsy Posted December 2, 2011 Share Posted December 2, 2011 [quote user="NSN"]We still enjoy the place and hopefully it'll be paid in time to retire there. Interested in whether you and others still see France as a long term good bet. A good long term bet for what? Chances are that it won't be covered in glaciers during the next ice age. The Republic will probably still be here in a few decades time. The Euro may or may not survive the next couple of monthsAccept that we would make a loss selling now but long term hope to have something to leave to our son. Thoughts?I've never built my life around inheritance planning for my offspring. Other people seem to see it as more important than having decent lives for themselves. Your choice.You are asking opinions and advice about a decision that is almost certainly more emotional than financial.[/quote] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NSN Posted December 2, 2011 Author Share Posted December 2, 2011 [quote user="Pommier"]If you still like the house, the area and France, then I wouldn't sell up. Although there's lots of doom and gloom on forums most people we know don't want to move back to the UK. If you had the cash instead of your French house, where would you invest it?[/quote] Good point - inflation at 4% and returns on cash savings are miserable. Stock market? not at the moment! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mint Posted December 2, 2011 Share Posted December 2, 2011 [quote user="Pommier"]If you still like the house, the area and France, then I wouldn't sell up. Although there's lots of doom and gloom on forums most people we know don't want to move back to the UK. If you had the cash instead of your French house, where would you invest it?[/quote]Ah, Pommier, the very question I was going to ask!Which dodgy bank would you put the money in?No, seriously, you'd have to do some hard thinking about what to do with the money if you do sell it. Personally, I'd rather have a house that I could visit and enjoy than have the money in some bank. Especially with all the talk about bank collapse and, in any case, there is no bank in the UK that is at present giving you a positive return after taking inflation into account. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NSN Posted December 2, 2011 Author Share Posted December 2, 2011 [quote user="Albert the InfoGipsy"][quote user="NSN"]We still enjoy the place and hopefully it'll be paid in time to retire there. Interested in whether you and others still see France as a long term good bet. A good long term bet for what? Chances are that it won't be covered in glaciers during the next ice age. The Republic will probably still be here in a few decades time. The Euro may or may not survive the next couple of monthsAccept that we would make a loss selling now but long term hope to have something to leave to our son. Thoughts?I've never built my life around inheritance planning for my offspring. Other people seem to see it as more important than having decent lives for themselves. Your choice.You are asking opinions and advice about a decision that is almost certainly more emotional than financial.[/quote][/quote] Thanks. The point about inheritance is more that we would hope the house appreciates over decades (while we are enjoyng it!) rather than over years. We never saw it as a quick buck as the market was in UK. You're right that this is not a purely financial matter - interested in whether others are having similar thoughts and their balance of emotional vs finance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NSN Posted December 2, 2011 Author Share Posted December 2, 2011 PS sorry about the quotes coming up in visual basic or something! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NormanH Posted December 2, 2011 Share Posted December 2, 2011 You could always sell it and give it to the children now.An inheritance is nicer when the hand giving it is still warm... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beckett Posted December 2, 2011 Share Posted December 2, 2011 Precisely.You've suffered the loss by now. It's unlikely to get significantly worse. You'd be getting out at - I believe - the bottom of the market, or so close to it as makes no difference. Unless you think you won't use the house ever again, or you really can't afford its upkeep (in which case, pick a figure and take €30K off it) you may as well keep it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quillan Posted December 2, 2011 Share Posted December 2, 2011 It also depends how long you have had the place and what the exchange rate was when you bought it and what it is now. Some people have taken a drop in Euros on the value of their house but have still come out of it OK because they have taken their money back to the UK, bought at 1.45 or more and sold at 1.15. For example if you paid £150k for it in July 2007 (exchange rate then was 1.480) you would get back £190k if you sold it for the same amount that you bought it for in Euros just because of the change in exchange rates. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NSN Posted December 2, 2011 Author Share Posted December 2, 2011 Good point. I remember the days well of 1.45 - 1.50 to the £. IIRC there was a period of a $2 £ as well - probably completely overvalued then. Can't see the exchange rate changing much while the Euro economy is so dire. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stan Streason Posted December 5, 2011 Share Posted December 5, 2011 Did something similar to you but without the mortgage and not quite so much on the renovations side.The sensible investment would have been to purchase a buy to let in UK and go on holiday with the income. Now we work every holiday and have stopped seeing the rest of the world.I am a great believer in the cyclical nature of the economy - its just this time its a bigger wheel taking much longer to turn.It may have cost you 250k and only be worth 180k but unless you cash in now and invest in something equally at the bottom of its market then your chances of gains from now on are even more remote.I have never worried too much about the currency rates - I assume my house will eventually be purchased by another englishman - the euro price may fluctuate but the sterling value (which is what I would want) will not deviate that much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
just john Posted December 5, 2011 Share Posted December 5, 2011 If it was bought as an investment of course it can go down . . . as well as up, (in the medium to long term), if you bought a place to renovate and enjoy well I'd say stick to the plan, there is no loss until you value to sell; in the meantime you have the place to revisit and finish; for certain even if you could sell now, the hit on an unfinished renovation would be significant even to the point of rendering it unsaleable. Why sell at the worst point? Don't worry, be happy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LEO Posted December 5, 2011 Share Posted December 5, 2011 [quote user="NormanH"]You could always sell it and give it to the children now.An inheritance is nicer when the hand giving it is still warm...[/quote]The most eloquent and accurate quote I have read, on this forum, for some time! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulT Posted December 6, 2011 Share Posted December 6, 2011 Life should not always being about making financial investments with positive returns.People think nothing about paying several thousand pounds each year for a holiday, money that is completely gone. However, in a property if the value does go down you still have something.If you enjoy the property AND can afford it then that is the most important thing. If all we do is worship a piggy bank then life will be dull.Paul Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mint Posted December 6, 2011 Share Posted December 6, 2011 What a good philosophy, Paul. I do think that it's only too easy to fall into the trap of thinking property should somehow be making you money.It's to do with us who have grown used in the UK to regarding property as investment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NickP Posted December 6, 2011 Share Posted December 6, 2011 The difference between the French and the Brits? The French buy a house to live in, Brits buy a house to sell it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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