Cheaper house prices Minervois/corbieres: why?

[Bones]

We have been renting for the last three years in the Montaigne Noire (Villardonnel, Cuxac etc) about 25k north of Carcassonne.

Whilst the house prices aren't exactly sky high where I live, some of the better properties can be pretty expensive when compared to places like Durban Corbières (30 mins from the med) and places in the Minervois that are no further from Carcassone than we are.

Is it because there are less Brits/Germans etc?

Or have I got it all wrong? [8-)]

[Pads]

Hi dont have my map in front of me so not to sure where Durban Corbieres is, but when we were hunting we were looking from Carcassonne north to Mazamet the central area around Salsigne we found very cheap compared to a little more north south and east of this area. Im glad we didnt buy in the area as we later found out that there is a disused gold mine that apparently leaks arsnic in to the water table !!!!! How true that is I dont know but when things like that are said about an area it must be hard to sell houses. May be the area your talking about has a local hidden worry? Are you looking to buy in the area at the mo? Do you live out there now ? [:)]   

[jc]

Durban C-About 10m. west of Leucate.

[Bones]

I used to live in Salsigne - hardly Beverly Hills!

Mazamet is a fair lick from Carcassonne, and a town centre in itself.

In between Mazamet and Carcassonne you can find bargains because it's absolutely freezing in winter!

What I have noticed though, is that you can buy a large property in the Minervois for cheaper than you can around, say, Salsigne, Aragon etc.

Dunno why...

Forgot to add: The arsenic thing is in Conques sur Orbiel. They made a bit of a blooper and the arsenic infested mini resevoir thing is still there from what I can see!

They are also battling against a big tip, for which the Conques area is one of the  proposed sites.

From the little I know they are going to make the tip an underground fortress and enviromental issues have been somewhat overblown, but there will be a lot of extra trugs ferrying the waste to the site. There is already an aggregate company nearby and they have a fair bit of traffic from their trucks.

[Pads]

We were told when house hunting that the Salsigne area was being tarted up as some where near there and  Villaneve (sp) there is going to be a very large golf coarse, holiday home complex and horse riding. It is meant to be complete by 2009. We did see a bit of tarting up gong on on the last few trips that we have driven through. This house he was trying to sell us was very cheap and he said we would get a lot more for it after 2009. But we didnt take him up on it [:)] Although I dont have any reason to disbelieve him as everything else he said and did was very honest

What do you mean by underground  fortress ?

My brother is a Dublin buisness man and he says that a lot of Dublin based buisness's are investing a lot of money in the Carcassonne area , this golf coarse being one of them.

Have you heard anything about that ? one of the rumours being that a castle style theme park is going to be built on the out skirts of Carcassonne aswell      

[Bones]

The golf course thing is being led by a local 'character', some unkind locals believe that he's never going to get it off the ground.

Castle style theme park?? There already is one: the Cité!

Somebody told me that the so called 'mega poubelle' is going to be a huge hole in the ground containing hermetically sealed containers of toxic waste that will be covered over anyway: so not much of a health hazard after all. The fact that there are many around here that fight against the erecting of diabolic windmills and that nobody seems to have solar heating - despite all the sun - makes the whole green argument look a bit suspect! I suppose the already existent green cesspool of arsenic doesn't help though. Plus it looks like a bit of a flood plane to me (Between Conques and Lastours). All in all, one to avoid methinks!

I dunno. My friend has a house right near the proposed golf course site, near a stables and a restaurant. I hope she makes a few quid when she comes to sell it: you'd think she would.

Technically speaking, the golf course will be classed as Villardonnel, I think. There are quite a few houses for sale there: I can't really slag the place off because I live there.  [:P]

[Jonzjob]

The problem starts with the gold mine at Salsigne. They also dug up 10s of thousands of tons of arsenic along with the gold. That has leached into the river Orbiel and there is a huge ongoing clean up of the old mine site. Have a look at http://194.117.223.129/servlet/KBaseShow?m=3&cid=10264&catid=12626&sort=-1 . There is a load of info on there, just go through the various headings.

We too were warned off buying at Salsigne. Good thing too or we may well not have found our dream here. We drove through your village about 2 weeks ago Bones. On the way back from going past Pads place and the completely cloud covered Pic du Nore! Visability was about 20 feet on the top. Our friends were not impressed with the view!!![+o(]

Ther are some fruit/vegatable producers along the Orbiel who have been banned from selling their produce due to the arsenic content.

The proposed land fill site is at Lassac, just North of Conques sur orbiel and there is a lot of opposition to it too. Take a few minutes to read this http://www.languedocliving.com/Languedoc/articles/politics-1.php it is very interesting!!!

I too am against wind turbines. They are inefficient and unreliable, well, as reliable as the wind? At best about 33% effecient over the course of a year and when the wind don't blow the turbine don't go. At least the old ones at Villatade, just North of Conques, have now had the broken rotors removed. I have some interesting photos of the failed blades lying on the ground under them. Also the failed blades that were still fixed on the hubs. They were erected in the late 90s. We now wait to see what happens next?

Oh, nealry forgot. We have solar heated water and swimming pool...[:D] And we may well be expanding that to help the central heating?

[Jonzjob]

I forgot to say earlier. Carcassone to Mazamet is 29 miles, so not too far and quite exciting when the snow is coming down n the top>>>

[Bones]

Interesting stuff; must remember to keep my eye out for cheap fruit and veg from the back of a van then? Or perhaps not... [+o(]

Next time you're passing through you should pop in the bar, the missus co runs it and you can tell them that Steve promised you a free drink (which of course I will later deny all knowledge of!).

[Jonzjob]

The guy wot sells stuf from the back of his van at the roundabout just before Ponte Rouge has his farm at Mille Petit, towards Marciette, East of here. His stuff is really good and he always gives us a bon killo too!! He will be back there with some lovely sparra grass next March. We overdose on it!!

We don't get up your way very often, but I will remember your kind offer. What size noose did you say it is?[8-)][:D]