Is the poll correct?

[WJT]

I am really surprised to see that almost 60% of the forum users are going to be house hunting this summer. In fact I find that statistic amazing. I was of the mind that most of the people using the forum already owned properties in France but perhaps many just don't bother to post.

It is also interesting because we hear so much of the slump in the property market in France as well as the UK, perhaps this is an indication that things are changing or could the poll be inaccurate. In any case 60% [:-))] 

[Teamedup]

I haven't voted in any poll, where is it?

[Owens88]

Most of the threads that appear in 'active' are populated by half a dozen people.

How many answered your poll ?You might have a record.

[ali-cat]

[quote user="WJT"]

It is also interesting because we hear so much of the slump in the property market in France as well as the UK, perhaps this is an indication that things are changing or could the poll be inaccurate. In any case 60% [:-))] 

[/quote]

I wish there was a slump in Northern Ireland prices!!  Over here they are going up by about 20% a year - & yesterday it was said that next year will be the biggest rise, ever.  Typical!!  We sold our house last week !!  Boy, did we pick the wrong time to sell up & leave!! [:(]

[TWINKLE]

Yes, but - this time next year you and Mark will be watching your beautiful garden grow somewhere in France.  Priceless[:)]

[Tresco]

Where is the poll though?

John, did you do your own survey to determine that 6 people dominate each thread? [;-)]

[Russethouse]

ali@ards, Perhaps thats why your husband has got cold feet ? He will not be able to return even if things go wrong ?

http://www.livingfrance.com/forums/

All it means is 56.%something people who did the pole may be looking - you do not have to visit that page to get to the forum, I rarely look there................when you first visit you should come via that route but you do not have to do the poll in order to continue, so by the time you have taken those factors into account, it really doesn't tell you much at all.

[WJT]

[quote user="Russethouse"]

All it means is 56.%something people who did the pole may be looking - you do not have to visit that page to get to the forum, I rarely look there................when you first visit you should come via that route but you do not have to do the poll in order to continue, so by the time you have taken those factors into account, it really doesn't tell you much at all.

[/quote]

Yes, I am sure you are right, however, after a while I always end up ticking a box and participating simply because my curiosity gets the better of me, some of the results have been interesting.  It would be even more interesting for me at least to see the numbers participating not just percentage. But what I don't understand is after a little while they will ask you the same question again. Not sure what that accomplishes for them.

Please tell me the other way of getting into the forum. I always come that way and have to go through a few pages first, I would imagine for first timers this could be quite confusing because there is no instruction to tell you to go to the bottom of the page that pops up for the second time, have always found this annoying.

56% still seems high to me for a percentage of forum users house hunting this summer though.

[Christine Animal]

I always come in through the side door, no polls   [;-)]

http://www.completefrance.com/cs/forums/

 

[WJT]

Alliards, that is very interesting, I wonder why they are predicting such huge increases in Northern Ireland. But at least you caught it on the up and not the other way around and no one not even the so called experts can predict for sure what will happen next year and it certainly looks a good time to buy in France.

We bought two years ago in France when there was very little on the market and it was at its peak on its way down [:(]. It appears to be a real buyers market so you will have your choice of wonderful property here, lucky you. Should we assume you are one of the 56% [:)]

[Tresco]

WJT to go straight into the forum you could try this instead

http://www.completefrance.com/cs/forums/TopicsActive.aspx

[WJT]

Wow, I never knew I could do that. Thank you Christine. [:D]

Edit: and Tresco, I keep posting at the samer time as others.

[Christine Animal]

It's the only way I knew of!  I had never seen the page Gay mentioned, but there are quite a few things on it.  Maybe I'll come in through the front door sometimes now!   [:)]

[Teamedup]

I only use the Living France front page entrance when there has been a problem with the board. I just have as was said:

http://www.completefrance.com/cs/forums/

 

[Owens88]

>John, did you do your own survey to determine that 6 people dominate each thread?

Hey, I didn't say dominate. That would probably be even easier to prove arithmetically , but subjectively who is dominating who ?

No, there was no poll, merely 'observational sampling'. Most threads that I see on the active pages have about 6 people in them. This one has 9 if I count correctly.

 

[ali-cat]

[quote user="WJT"]

Alliards, that is very interesting, I wonder why they are predicting such huge increases in Northern Ireland. But at least you caught it on the up and not the other way around and no one not even the so called experts can predict for sure what will happen next year and it certainly looks a good time to buy in France.

We bought two years ago in France when there was very little on the market and it was at its peak on its way down [:(]. It appears to be a real buyers market so you will have your choice of wonderful property here, lucky you. Should we assume you are one of the 56% [:)]

[/quote]

There is only one reason the prices in NI are going up - & it's because the IRA have stopped "blowing up" half of the country!!  There is still quite a lot of trouble - but no-where near as bad as it used to be.  The difference in house prices here, in the last few years, is incredible.  We used to be the lowest house price area in the UK but are now on a par with most of England.  

On a "slightly" different subject - are the prices in France good at the moment?  We have dealt with a couple of English agents & think that they maybe they are a real rip-off!!  Will be looking with French agents when we move, I think!!  [:-))]

[WJT]

Yes, I think French prices are very good at the moment and appear to have come down in price the last few years.  Unfortunately, when we were looking (it took us over a year) there was very little on the market but was at the tail end of the peak and prices were starting to stagnate.  But as I said very little (of what we wanted) on the market and appeared to be only the dregs left over and many had been on the market for ages.  By the way, I think a few of them are still on the market.[:-))]

But now, according to our agent they have loads of beautiful properties and are listed at very good prices just not enough buyers.  I have seen loads of adverts for properties I would have died for if they had been available at that price when we were looking. I would say that it is definitely a buyers market with plenty of choice.

From what you said, it sounds as if you have sold your property in NI, if I were in your position, I would take my time, rent if possible and enjoy. In the end we finally had to rent a gite for over a month with my husband commuting back and forth while I looked full time every day.  I dealt with every agent I could find (French, English and Dutch) that appeared to have something of interest in a very large area because again there was so little on the market. But I would have to say from my experience I didn't find that any of the agents were trying to rip us off.

You are in a very good position and if you can shop around search on the internet and try and visit as many agents (French, English, whatever) as possible, you will begin to get a very good idea of the market in the area you want to buy and would be very difficult for an agent to pull the wool over your eyes at that stage in any case.

By the way, having said all of this, have you decided on an area? My search pretty much included the whole of the SW believe it or not, particularly in Aquitaine and Midi-Pyrenees, we finally bought in the Dordogne (Perigord Noir) and love it. Good luck and as I said before, lucky you.[:)]

[Dick Smith]

We've obviously been at it with a will, the 'yes' vote is now down to 54%...

[WJT]

A few days ago, I think it was 62%. One of the reasons it got my attention.

[Tresco]

WJT, as Gay intimated (I think) only necomers to the forum, who will mostly be thinking about buying rather than have already bought and /or found the sortcuts into the forum) will have seen that page.

I'll make a guess that most people who have bought no longer subscribe to or read the mag, or still enter the forum that way[:)]

It's hopelessly skewed; The only reason the 'votes' for 'yes I'm hoping to buy' has gone down, is because Gay linked to it, so some of us will have gone and said 'no'. [:D]

 

[bigjimbishop]

I'd be interested in a poll which looked at how many of the 62% moved here and how many returned to the UK after 2 years.

Some pals told me that 30% return but I don't know if this is true.

What I do notice is that for the most part people return to the UK because they refuse to learn French!

They buy the barn, build the gite, run out of cash, can't find a job and basicly fail to realise that life here is so much easier than the UK if you speak french!

So to answer all the "will we be welcome?" questions and rubbish any books that list endless nightmares in moving here, learning to integrate local culture and language into your lives is the most rewarding and fun challange in moving here.

Too many "whinging Pommes" 

so

Speak French

or

Go Home

Biz

A+

[Monika]

People who intend buying in France now are truly lucky, they will be able to put in an offer and will have a great choice. When we bought in 2003 not much was on the market, everything which we had seen on the Internet or on Vive la France had been snapped up. Estate Agents did not even turn up for appointments and in Brittany we were told by the Estate Agent to sign straight away otherwise it would go to the other people who where looking over the house after us (she was in constant contact on the Mobile phone with her collegue). Our neighbour (French) who bought his house in 2004 feels he has been conned by the vendor who was charging him way over its realistic value just because English people were also interested (whoops it was us and some other English) and now he finds a lot of things wrong with the house, he might even take the vendor to court.