NickP Posted January 18, 2018 Share Posted January 18, 2018 http://www.completefrance.com/french-property/buying-property/which-areas-of-france-are-least-popular-with-british-buyers-1-4920763?utm_medium=email&utm_source=eshot&utm_campaign=newsletterlink Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chancer Posted January 18, 2018 Share Posted January 18, 2018 Old data from 2011 but the population figure for Picardie sis significantly lower from the one I recall from previous data, I bet its a lot lower today despite the prefecture being besieged by applications for citizenship and cartes de séjour compared to previous years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alittlebitfrench Posted January 18, 2018 Share Posted January 18, 2018 I would move to Franche-Comté, Alsace or Lorraine tomorrow. Not because it has less Brits, but because they are some of the nicest regions to live in France. BTW, they got their house price figures completely wrong. You need a few more euros than that. Is it me or are the nicest places to live in France are the ones that Brits don't buy in ? Why is that then ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idun Posted January 18, 2018 Share Posted January 18, 2018 This is down to taste, some like that 'look' of the Med, not for me, at all.I have seen a lot of France, not all, but I would not move to Alsace or Lorraine, for Franche Comte for that matter, all of which I have visited. And house prices, yes, they will always be a deciding factor. But I would always be wary of a particular village or area of a county being significantly lower than other parts, the question I would ask, is why is that.[blink] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Zoff Posted January 18, 2018 Share Posted January 18, 2018 The northern Allier is not the most picturesque part of France, is miles away from beaches, ski resorts and international airports and certainly doesn't enjoy the best winter climate. So I meet very few other Brits. But as a place to live and mix with the locals, it is just so easy. I find it difficult to identify with a lot of the negative experiences mentioned by contributors - and the UK media - in relation to other parts of France.But then again, perhaps being deaf has something to do with it.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alittlebitfrench Posted January 18, 2018 Share Posted January 18, 2018 Idun said.."I have seen a lot of France, not all, but I would not move to Alsace or Lorraine, for Franche Comte for that matter, all of which I have visited "The question I have to ask is why ?People move to to France for work or retirement.In terms of work, then you have no choice. In terms of retirement, then France is your Oyster.Personally, I would not move to Brittany, Normandy, or anywhere in SW France. I really don't see the attraction. For me they are just boring places to live. The regions of Alsace, Lorraine or Franche Comte are so much more interesting on every level.Let's be clear though, if I was in the UK.....I would not move to any part of France. Maybe Paris, Lyon or Marseille etc. Stuck in some rural village....no thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woolybanana Posted January 18, 2018 Share Posted January 18, 2018 I like the area south of Chablis and also le Berrichon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BritinBretagne Posted January 18, 2018 Share Posted January 18, 2018 Let’s be clear, luckily not many people are like you. You can’t get anything right, you even contradict yourself in your final paragraph. At least I’m safe here in Brittany and can sleep safe knowing that you won’t be buying the house next door. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woolybanana Posted January 18, 2018 Share Posted January 18, 2018 You two would get on just fine, sitting in the village café with a bottle of red between you, putting the world to rights and bitching at each other? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alittlebitfrench Posted January 18, 2018 Share Posted January 18, 2018 [quote user="BritinBretagne"] At least I’m safe here in Brittany and can sleep safe knowing that you won’t be buying the house next door.[/quote]You are quite safe Brit.There is nothing wrong with Brittany. There is nothing wrong with Cornwall.I just find these types of places awkward to live in if you are not Breton or Cornish iMHO. You will always feel out of place. Happy to go on holiday there though. Live ??? No.The same applies to Corisca....which is a place I would dearly love live.I have said before that we have a few relatives in your area Brit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mint Posted January 18, 2018 Share Posted January 18, 2018 [quote user="BritinBretagne"]Let’s be clear, luckily not many people are like you. You can’t get anything right, you even contradict yourself in your final paragraph. At least I’m safe here in Brittany and can sleep safe knowing that you won’t be buying the house next door.[/quote]If you feel safe in Brittany, BinB, I feel practically as impregnable and fortified as though I am in Fort Knox!Absolutely no danger whatsoever of ALBF buying the verger next to my house, clearing the land and building a house there[:D][:D][:P] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BritinBretagne Posted January 18, 2018 Share Posted January 18, 2018 The main reason that living in Cornwall was never a serious option for a place to live is it is no longer the same county where I was born and went to Primary School in. It has been overrun by incommers who have changed the way of life (and house prices) in a way that the Brits in the Dordogne will never match. Brittany is more like the Cornwall I knew. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nomoss Posted January 18, 2018 Share Posted January 18, 2018 [quote user="woolybanana"]You two would get on just fine, sitting in the village café with a bottle of red between you, putting the world to rights and bitching at each other?[/quote]I think it's more like a conversation overheard in a retirement home[:D]After 2 years in Cornwall as a furriner (from 3 counties away) I agree with ALBF that it's an awkward place to live in, though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chancer Posted January 18, 2018 Share Posted January 18, 2018 What area in Cornwall BiB? Its changed massively in the time that I have known it since the 60's, my earliest memories, my grandfather sold his cottage in 1984 to move into sheltered housing, I'm pretty sure the agent scammed him as he was told he was very lucky to get £16K at exactly the same time I bought my first property, a bedsit near Gatwick for £24K, the chocolate box cottage is now worth millions and has been ruined in my eyes by massive unsympathetic extensions. My widowed father also retired there shortly afterwards with his new wife my stepmother, her family leave a lot to be desired to say the least and soon clocked on that they could move down there, get sacked from their seasonal job and be housed and live off the social for the rest of their lives, there are now 3 generations of her offspring there numbering scores and not a worker or contributor to society amongst them. My father moved from the first retirement property to another smaller more manageable new bungalow close to a doctors surgery, a new private estate with hard working neighbours, over the course of 15 years it totally changed, housing associations bought up every property sold and moved in the dregs of society, my father was the only person who was not allegedly disabled, and who paid for his own roof over his head and his own vehicle, all the others had brand new motability vehicles and despite their alleged disabilities all worked part time up to 18 hours a week on the books (and a lot more off the books) so as not to impact their benefits. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alittlebitfrench Posted January 18, 2018 Share Posted January 18, 2018 [quote user="BritinBretagne"]The main reason that living in Cornwall was never a serious option for a place to live is it is no longer the same county where I was born and went to Primary School in. It has been overrun by incommers who have changed the way of life (and house prices) in a way that the Brits in the Dordogne will never match. Brittany is more like the Cornwall I knew.[/quote]Is that not a contradiction ?? Are you not a newcomer BreizhinBretagne in Bretagne ? Having said that....was Brittany joined once with Cornwall hence its name ? Little Britain or something like that ?PS. In terms of house prices...Brits selling their houses in the Dordogne are trying their best to match Cornwall. LOL. The only people who will pay those prices are other Brits. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mint Posted January 18, 2018 Share Posted January 18, 2018 ALBF, you are right about prices paid in the Dordogne. In the last few years, in our tiny village, I know of 3 properties sold to other Brits (one to Australians as a holiday home) for roughly THREE times the price I considered them to be "worth".I couldn't believe it and still can't. All have spent thousands on those properties since. Some people have more money than sense.Admittedly one is not actually in the village but on the road between our village and the next one. So now we have one British couple more or less full-time and one Australian couple for 10 weeks in the summer. And they are extremely pleasant and apparently intelligent people so why on earth they paid those crazy prices remains a complete mystery. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BritinBretagne Posted January 18, 2018 Share Posted January 18, 2018 Chancer, I was born in Redruth, lived near Truro for several years before we moved to near St Austell where I went to school.ALBF, my neighbours are happy that I come from Cornwall, they say that it gives us a lot in common. I believe that the reason that so many incoming Brits are prepared to pay over the odds for property is because even the inflated prices make them seem such good value compared to what they’re selling in the U.K. and so many buyers see it as a race. I often wonder what the think after they’ve moved, settled in and realised that other similar properties in their area might be for sale for half what they paid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chancer Posted January 18, 2018 Share Posted January 18, 2018 BiB. Graandfather lived at Callestick, father retired to Holywell Bay and moved from there to Mount Hawke. As with any place that I have fond memories of, visiting again after many years is always a negative experience, there is not much modern "progress" that improves a place in my eyes, others would see turning somewhere into Dubai as progress. One place I recently drove through where I used to work was Edenbridge in Kent, the main drag through and high street are unrecognisable and it for me was an exception because it was well done and an improvement. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YCCMB Posted January 18, 2018 Share Posted January 18, 2018 In 1982 I bought a watch in Hong Kong. My Australian boss asked our local Chinese contact if I'd got a bargain. He replied that if I was happy with the price of paid, and the seller was happy with the price he received, then I'd got a bargain. The watch still works. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NickP Posted January 18, 2018 Author Share Posted January 18, 2018 Well said Betty, very true. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alittlebitfrench Posted January 19, 2018 Share Posted January 19, 2018 If after buying the watch you walked down the street and you see the same watch being sold at half the price in a different shop, would you still call it a bargain ?Seloger is the second most popular website for selling houses in France. If the seller is selling their property with a number of different estate agents you can almost guarantee that their will be a difference in price amongst them. Sometimes 30k - 40k.If you sign for the house with an estate agent at its higher price only to find later someone else was selling it at 30 K lower, would you say you had a bargain ?If the British are so blasé when buying property over the odds, why do they worry about paint being more expensive in France. They don't care if they lose 50k when buying a house but worry about paying 15 euros more in France for buying some paint to paint the house with.Gotcha !!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mint Posted January 19, 2018 Share Posted January 19, 2018 Peter Mayle of A Year in Provence fame has just died.Was he pivotal in the invasion of the Provence (and other parts of France) by British people?Has anyone now living in France or has a résidence secondaire NOT read the book?ALBF, go on, be the first to answer[:)] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alittlebitfrench Posted January 19, 2018 Share Posted January 19, 2018 LOLNo, never read the book. Never watched the programme. Never driven a 2CV. Cycled a bike with a baguette tied to the back of it. Shopped at a market whilst whistling the music from Amelie. Think I am French. Painted my shutters blue. Kiss anyone I don't want to kiss. Pretend that my neighbours like me. Change to a French accent when speaking a French word in an English conversation. (That one annoys me more than blue shutters). I could carry on... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PatHCA Posted January 19, 2018 Share Posted January 19, 2018 I think the paint issue is generally considered to be quality rather than cost Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alittlebitfrench Posted January 19, 2018 Share Posted January 19, 2018 [quote user="PatHCA"]I think the paint issue is generally considered to be quality rather than cost[/quote]In their heads.Let's put paint to one side. What about, placo, insulation, piping, electrical fittings and all the other stuff the muppets buy in the UK.Just saying, if you have happy to blow 30,40, 50 k or whatever on buying a property why worry about the cost of living ??? I am happy to lose 50 k on buying the house but I am not prepared to pay 10 Euros for a bit of Placo when I can buy it in the UK for 6 pounds. I will hire a van and go to the UK and buy it. LOL.If you save 50 k on buying the house you then have an extra 500 euros to spend per month for 8 years.ALBF is right. He is always right. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now