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Ok... I've bought a house....


RickM
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Hi all,

I'm a fairly long-term lurker, but have never previously posted. It seems like the time has come to introduce myself, as we are scheduled to complete on the purchase of our new house in the Var in a couple of weeks.

After decades of searching and saving, my wife and I have taken the plunge and bought what feels like our perfect house. It is currently totally usable, but in need of a few alterations as time allows.

I own a building company in Stockport, and relish the task of working on it; even the dreaded fosse septique (seriously.... It's a fun weekend with a mini-digger following SPANC's instructions, and who wouldn't enjoy that? :-).

At this time it is purely a holiday home; we hope to retire there for much of the year when able, but we're both sub-40 and that's at least 10 years away.

This forum has been a rich source of info; thanks to those who have provided it. I have no questions now.... but I suspect that I will!

All the best

Rick
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Congratulations, Rick!  I have 2 friends who have just bought in the Var and they have been sending pictures of sunsets and this and that. 

I remember well what it was like and I was new to France.  It's an exciting time, a time of great discovery and wonder...........

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Probably a good time to buy as property prices in the Var are a good 30% off their 2008 peak. Although if you have been converting from £ to € at the current exchange rate, OUCH!!

I originally bought in the Var near the coast some 15 years ago and have enjoyed our time there, but am now looking to sell what is our second house and have a buyer lined up. I am taking a not inconsiderable haircut, but the exchange rate works in my favour so should break even.

Biggest disappointment for me was the Winter weather, as much colder and wetter than expected. Also it can be dead in Winter, especially near the coast.

It always amused me that the many 'Verglas Frequent' road signs get removed in the Spring and put back in the Autumn, so make sure your house is insulated well and ideally has air con for what can be sweltering hot summers, which I enjoyed.
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Well done, good time to have bought as the market seems to be on the move at last; spoke to my notaire to day and he says he is snowed under with property purchase work to the extent that he needs extra staff that he just can't get.

And the press is saying that Aquitaine is doing 4% which may well speed up.

Not sure about other regions though.
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There are modest indications that the market has bottomed out and is improving modestly in some areas. However, my Notaire feels that next year the market may soften again once the Macron honeymoon period ends and the ECB start tightening monetary policy.

What is evident in the Var is a huge unsold inventory that will take years to clear, to the extent that in my area the immobilliers stopped putting up for sale boards outside houses, so as not to put off potential buyers and spoil the area with mass signage, due to the shear volume of properties on the market. Instead they put up sold signs, once a property is sold!
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Thanks all for the welcome; I hope I can contribute more to the group as I learn the vagaries of French construction.

Indeed, the exchange rate is currently a somewhat bitter pill, but the house price is attractive, and the location is all we ever hoped for. Everything else I can change.

That being said, we have no intention of ever selling the house; it is simply a case being happy that we bought the most appropriate house on the market at a price he are happy to pay. Nothing is else really matters now!
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