Unfinished New Build Houses in Vendee

[Frederick]

There are now lots and lots of new build houses in South Vendee that work on has come to a halt. It has been explained to me that a lot of people who thought they could buy a plot of land  cheap .put up a house and then sell for a good profit have now realised that the buyers are no longer there and stopped work on them  ...40 houses I am told are  currently for sale in the area mine is in....One now owned by a bank I am told will go for the 38.000 they are owed ...so sombody will profit from the present troubles .....

[Benjamin]

We live 20 or so kilometres south of La Roche sur Yon and I've seen no evidence whatsoever of the situation you describe Frederick. Perhaps the new retail development near the Leclerc commercial centre is accounting for all the new properies built locally to us.

[Frederick]

I am inland a bit from La Tranche and we have lots of bungalow type houses now  with roofs on and no windows in bare concrete block construction un plastered that have not been worked on for ages round us and no sign of completion ....I was told that the retired from Paris and the second home buyers are not about in the numbers they were now ..?... Its a shame because unoccupied houses in a village  does not help support the local shops we have already  lost the butcher

[woolybanana]

When I was buying at the end of last year the agents were saying that there had been a disastrous overbuild in some areas and that the prices had crashed. This applied particularly to the La Tranche area.

[The Riff-Raff Element]

We're a bit further East, between Luçon and Fontenay. Although there's not much in the way of unfinished properties, what has changed is that the building of new lottisments seems to have ground to a halt.

There was due to be a new one built on the other side of our village - 33 houses that our mayor managed to get approved for one of his mates without drawing too much attention to the process, comme d'hab. The land has been sold on to a developer for about 350,000 euros and he has done absolutely nothing to the site, not even arranged for utility connections. Permission lapses in about six months and the guy shows every sign of writing it off as a bad job, particularly since the land tends to flood and arranging proper drainage to the satisfaction of insurers would run to Lord knows how much.

Another site for 11 houses in a nearby village (one touted by Brit agents as being "desirable") has cut the price of the plots with utility connections to 10€ per square metre: up until about a year ago plots were selling for three times that.

Private building still seems to be continuing apace, but large scale developements are just not happening.

[Gastines]

We've just done a holiday trip down to the Med via Nantes/Anglouleme/Periguex/Carcassonne/Toulouse/Narbonne/Perpignan.back up the side of the Pyrenees  via all sorts of villages and towns,Agen/Niort etc and were amazed at how many places outside of the main commercial areas were virtually derelict.Noticeable where the amount of UKers where there were cheap flights to UKfrom local Airports. A lot of the towns seem to rely on income from one tourist site as in Carcassonne. Always wanted to visit ,a cite worth a visit but to me it had no Soul. I expected a different feel to the place but it was spoilt by the plastic sword shops etc. All it pointed out to us is that you definately need to have a good look around before deciding where to live or even buy a holiday home. While we may not get so much sunshine at this end ,there are a great many things to do and see for residents and visitors in a fairly compact area and the added bonus of easy access to Ports/Airport/Sea and all Shopping and Health facilities. Perhaps as buyers become more aware of needs and finances they realise that a house with a pool in the middle of nowhere is not such a good idea?

Regards.

[Jotty]

[quote user="Gastines"]

We've just done a holiday trip down to the Med via Nantes/Anglouleme/Periguex/Carcassonne/Toulouse/Narbonne/Perpignan.back up the side of the Pyrenees  via all sorts of villages and towns,Agen/Niort etc and were amazed at how many places outside of the main commercial areas were virtually derelict.Noticeable where the amount of UKers where there were cheap flights to UKfrom local Airports. A lot of the towns seem to rely on income from one tourist site as in Carcassonne. Always wanted to visit ,a cite worth a visit but to me it had no Soul. I expected a different feel to the place but it was spoilt by the plastic sword shops etc. All it pointed out to us is that you definately need to have a good look around before deciding where to live or even buy a holiday home. While we may not get so much sunshine at this end ,there are a great many things to do and see for residents and visitors in a fairly compact area and the added bonus of easy access to Ports/Airport/Sea and all Shopping and Health facilities. Perhaps as buyers become more aware of needs and finances they realise that a house with a pool in the middle of nowhere is not such a good idea?

Regards.

[/quote]

Post edited by a moderator.  Jotty please take some time to read the code of conduct that you signed up to when you joined this forum  http://www.completefrance.com/cs/forums/465569/ShowPost.aspx

[woolybanana]

You always that polite?

[Jotty]

No ..sometimes I tell the truth as I see it..[:D]

What relevance has this post to Unfinished New Build Houses in Vendee ?

[woolybanana]

That could get you into serious trouble.[6]

[Quillan]

[quote user="Gastines"]

We've just done a holiday trip down to the Med via Nantes/AngloulemeAngloulemePeriguex/Periguex/CarcassonneNarbonne/Toulouse/Narbonne/Perpignan.back up the side of the Pyrenees  via all soAgenoNiortlages and towns,Agen/Niort etc and were amazed at how many places outside of the main commercial areas were virtually derelict.NoticUKers where the amount of UKers where thUKfromre cheap flights to UKfrom local Airports. A lot of the towns seem to rely on income from one tourist site as in Carcassonne. Always wanted to visit ,a cite worth a visit but to me it had no Soul. I expected a different feel to the place but it was spoilt by the plastic sword shops etc. All it poindefinately us is that you definately need to have a good look around before deciding where to live or even buy a holiday home. While we may not get so much sunshine at this end ,there are a great many things to do and see for residents and visitors in a fairly compact area and the added bonus of easy access to Ports/Airport/Sea and all Shopping and Health facilities. Perhaps as buyers become more aware of needs and finances they realise that a house with a pool in the middle of nowhere is not such a good idea?

Regards.

[/quote]

Ouch that hurt !

I live about an hour from Carcassonne and yes it is a tourist trap but not the only one by far. People come here for all sorts of reasons and the area can accommodate virtually all of them. We have nice villages with wood beamed houses overhanging the walkways. Narrows streets leading to village squares with nice old houses etc.

Of course most British visitors fly down here, it can be cheaper than getting to St Malo (£5 one way including tax's last month to Carcassonne or Perpignan). But it's not just the Brits that come here, if it were I would have closed the door on my B&B years ago. We get a lot of French and Spanish visitors because the Cathar Castles. We get the readers of the Last Templars, Labyrinth and of course The Da Vinci Code if you like that sort of thing. There is a massive amount of sporting activities down here, basically if you can name it (sensibly, not cricket for instance) you can do it. If you like walking we have in excess of 100 approved and documented walks just in Aude alone. Then we have over a hundred approved mountain bike tracks and of course you have plenty of quiet roads to cycle along.

To be fair I went to ST Malo many years ago for a golfing holiday and probably will never go back again, didn't like the place, but I wouldn't go round slagging the place or the people off just because I didn't like it. In fact I have been to many places that I would never go back to.

So to say many of the towns appear to rely on tourism from Carcassonne is somewhat misguided to say the least.

[Gastines]

I did note Jotty's response and I always think any response is worth reading. Perhaps my opinion was dulled by returning to a gale from the sunnier south?In reply to Quillan it was a posting aimed at the local economy/unfinished houses theme  although perhaps a little off track. We did manage a few Cathar castles but in the case of the Chateau de Puilaurens, we only got as far as the steps of the chicane. Glad I wasn't in the building trade then!! In a restaurant at Puilaurens at lunchtime the local schoolchildren were having their lunch, about 20 of them aged 5-11. The 2 youngest boys started playing up and the teacher actually put them in a corner each side of the door with a curtain pulled over. One was tearfull,the other cheeky. Slightly different than discipline in the UK? A further add-on,as well as Agen prunes, we had the best Chinese meal in a spotless restaurant called The Dynasty, the mirrors imported from China were worth a visit on their own.

Regards.

[woolybanana]

Perhaps the effect on the housing market of prunes and Chinese mirrors has been underestimated. Anyone out there got any experience of this?

[Barrym]

Many new houses in France are build for the owners as and when they can get the money (rather than on spec for a quick sale) - ie they buy a plot of land then when they get some money put up the building, and this will stay unfinished until they get some more money to finish it. It may be what you have seen is people not having enough readies to start the next stage.

[Frederick]

I think Barrym that Wolly is on the right path here....we had a boom in building a couple of years or so ago and  people got in on the act to try and make money as plots came up for sale at a good price .Houses were build and sold quite quickly and they probably did alright .....now with village houses taking a long time to sell .....over a year in some cases now which is unusual for this area 10 minutes from the beaches   and the prices dropping it just looks like the new build guys have adopted a  "wait and see what happens " policy when it comes to getting them completed ..gossip is some have been caught out .cant afford to finish them ...

[Quillan]

[quote user="Gastines"]

I did note Jotty's response and I always think any response is worth reading. Perhaps my opinion was dulled by returning to a gale from the sunnier south?In reply to Quillan it was a posting aimed at the local economy/unfinished houses theme  although perhaps a little off track. We did manage a few Cathar castles but in the case of the Chateau de Puilaurens, we only got as far as the steps of the chicane. Glad I wasn't in the building trade then!! In a restaurant at Puilaurens at lunchtime the local schoolchildren were having their lunch, about 20 of them aged 5-11. The 2 youngest boys started playing up and the teacher actually put them in a corner each side of the door with a curtain pulled over. One was tearfull,the other cheeky. Slightly different than discipline in the UK? A further add-on,as well as Agen prunes, we had the best Chinese meal in a spotless restaurant called The Dynasty, the mirrors imported from China were worth a visit on their own.

Regards.

[/quote]

The biggest problem round here is not enough house builders.

For high end builds there are only two but if you want a box with plasterboard

interior walls then there are a few others. The good ones have around a 3 year

wait and the others between 1 and 2 years. Basically the longer the wait the

better the builder. Because of this lack of builders they seem to work on a get

'get the shell up and the roof on then come back to do the rest'. Summer, I am

told, is not a good time to build round here because of the temperature being

up in the top 30's has an effect on the concrete and cement. You can,

apparently, only put so much retardant in to the mix.

 

The next problem is getting a builder to actually finish. He

who shouts loudest gets the builder on site so quite often the builder will leave

one site and go to another just because the person has jumped up and down. On

average it takes a year from the first pour of concrete to the outside

rendering going on. This may explain why so many houses look part finished.

 

The thing about the shutters being closed is because of the

heat. In our first summer here, just like you would back in the UK,

we opened all our doors and windows, bad idea, couldn’t sleep for weeks because

of the heat. By closing the shutters and in particular those that face the sun

keeps your house a good 10 degrees cooler than the outside which when its 38

deg outside feels like quite a difference. Most people go to work so they close

the shutters on both sides of the house to take in to account the sun moving

round during the day. Some of course close them for security.

 

Hope that helps you understand our strange southern ways [;-)]

[Nearly Retired (I am now)]

Is it just me that's breathing a sigh of relief that there's a brief respite in construction of these beige rendered rectangular bungalows?

I can't stand the things. No character, no style - just little boxes all the same ( you might even want to sing a song about them!).

There seem to be masses and masses of them all over SW France. One day the French will wake up and realise how they have ruined the look of the entire country. OK, maybe not many can afford to renovate and heat old stone houses - but please, why not make a few "L" shaped, add a bay window, put a dormer in the roof, make them a different colour, add a distinctive porch. Have a two storey part - the options are endless. How about something different from white UPVC double glazing and doors. Have the developers and buyers really got no imagination?

Rant over.

[WJT]

Nearly Retired, I got slated over this once for mentioning something similar on the forum. Nothing against new builds in France at all but I agree with your sentiments exactly. I personally feel that France is shooting itself in the foot (one of my French neighbours comments) over this.

I personally feel that they have ruined many beautiful authentic areas by allowing this to happen. I can certainly understand the need for affordable housing but there does appear to be no planning or forethought involved. They are simply scatted all over the place willy nilly and many in our area appear to be orange.

I cannot imagine this happening in for example Italy where it would never be allowed or even the UK for that matter. It is very very sad.[:(]

[Jotty]

Perhaps because they are nicer to live in than a town centre house with no garden?

[Anton Redman]

" The next problem is getting a builder to actually finish. He who shouts loudest gets the builder on site so quite often the builder will leave one site and go to another just because the person has jumped up and down. On average it takes a year from the first pour of concrete to the outside rendering going on. This may explain why so many houses look part finished. "

Normally the people who have a continuing supply of work find it easiest to keep trademen on site.In general if there is no prospect of on going work making sure tea, coffee and biscuits available and paying on the nail, I know it is a spot in Bristol, but not before are more likely to keep things moving.

Many houses are left unrendered because after two year's occupancy rendering by at Artisan is chargeable at 5.5% TVA instead of 19.6% 

[Nearly Retired (I am now)]

"Perhaps because they are nicer to live in than a town centre house with no garden?"

So's a mobile home on a trailer park - that's not the point. We're talking about architecture, heritage and all that stuff. Even Messrs Barrett with their UK starter homes glue on a bit of Tudorbethan plastic wood from time to time. Some of their houses will be in facing brick others in render and so on.