Why are house prices falling in Dordogneshire?

[Speedy]

OK  - apologies for the !!!

But, I simply feel passionate about the housing market 'circumstances'

The banking institutions who changed the 'rules' from 3 x a salary to 5x for mortgages etc should pay the price. Yes I do understand that failing banks can effect the man in the street but something must be done! (opps)

I agree with fivecats reasoning about the French population being worried about thier living cost.

The French hosuing market needs a good shake up, from the point of its administrative cost for selling/buying a house.

With companies regularly closing (yes I'm about to be made redundant as my company is moving the office 500km away!!!! - oh there I go again) the freedom and liberty is not easily achivable for an ordinary man , who had previously decided to purchase a house and is then faced with huge estate agent etc fees to move to 'follow his work'

[mint]

[quote user="Anton Redman"]I do not think they can drop that much and stay above the cost of building a new house, at least around here. Mind you when we bought our first house it was below build cost.[/quote]

Went to view a house in Northern Charente yesterday.  It was an extremely large house and the asking price was below the cost of building a new house and certainly miles below the cost of this very large and elaborate house.

The sellers were Brits who want to return to the UK.

I suppose the eventual price will depend on how desperate the sellers are and how badly the buyers want the property.  No new surprise there then!

[Scooby]

It's ironic, Speedy, that the group of individuals you are defending - those with limited resources who stretched themselves beyond their means because they felt they had a right to own a property - contributed to the current position.  Its also interesting that no-one has mentioned the role that IAS39 has played in the current fiasco.

[Speedy]

Maybe my English expressionism is getting bad.

I do not defend these people. If they stretched themselves using multiplication factors that were unreasonable / unrealistic - whatever, then pay the price - they had no right. The right comes with being able to meet your responsabilities.

IAS39 I have not needed a mortgage for some years now (is this type of investigation entered into when taking out a mortgage,), but this regulation looks to me(you can shoot me down - its just my opinion) like the sort of thing you may find in small print, or is beyond the man in the street. If it ensures the mortgage market is better controlled then it should be welcomed.

[Logan]

[quote user="Speedy"] The right comes with being able to meet your responsabilities [/quote]

I worry when I start to read about 'rights' in this context. What is 'right' in my opinion is if it works well for you.

Financial risk is an integral part of modern life. Venture capitalism will not work without it. Too much control and regulation stifles incentive and effort. Without capitalism you have a socialist state with a command economy. I know which I prefer.

When risk pays off I never hear the doom sayers saying 'I told you so'. I believe risk should be rewarded but if it fails you have to dust yourself off and start again. Persistence in my experience usually brings reward. Capitalism will always create highs and lows. At the moment we are approaching a low. However it will turn and those individuals who survived their risk will prosper.

[caro]

And of course some folks will benefit from the lows, tis an ill wind...

[AnOther]

[quote user="sweet 17"]I suppose the eventual price will depend on how desperate the sellers are and how badly the buyers want the property.  No new surprise there then![/quote]To expand on sweets point a little, if we make a very broad assumption that property values have fallen by the same amounts in both France and UK then the for those wishing to return to UK the fact that the £ has sunk best part of 20% in the last year theoretically gives a seller that amount of 'wriggle' room, remembering also that those who bought in France between 2000 and 2007 would have done so at an exchange rate of between 1.4 to as much as 1.75 and depending on how much they spent on restoration etc. will have benefitted from the escalation in French property prices which occurred in those years.

Perhaps a better, or at least more pragmatic approach to selling up and returning to UK, would be to pitch your price at a level sufficient to put you back in the UK propery market roughly where you would be if you had never left and don't forget, as a cash buyer in UK you will be absolute King !

[Babbles]

Ernie , Very well put, all investments are relative to each other, even when we take into exchange rate and falling prices, we are still looking to buy the same type of house, in the same condition if the prices hadn't fallen (as we are buyers and sellers), the only thing that is different now is how we will do the renovation, with recent experience and the fall of the £ it might be more ecconomical to ship certain things to France (but not too good for the enviroment, before someone else says it[;-)])

I had an email from our soon to be French mortgage providers who asked if we were interested in a 100% mortgage, and this was offered after we sent all the paperwork and supporting documents, so just how hard is it to get a mortgage? and how many people looking to buy in France have actualy been turned down? I'm not saying that were not on the edge (or over it) or a world ecconomic turndown but the certainly seems an awful lot of doom mongering.

[mint]

Just goes to show, Miss Babs, that banks are the same the world over.

Lend money to the people who already have money.

Offer to lend people an umbrella on a sunny day and ask for its return when it starts to rain.

Nothing new there then![:)]

[ams]

I believe that the reason for the credit crunch in the USA and to a lessor extent in the UK is that banks gave loans to people that did not have any money etc.

 

ams

[mint]

You're right to a point, ams.

The banks lend the money to people without any because they are greedy and they charge these people a premium.

[letrangere]

You don't think the major problem is that people have seen property as a provider of a quick buck rather than somewhere to live in, enjoy, make a home in and, yes, see mature in financial terms in the long run?  The situation throughout Europe in areas popular with expats is pretty grim, I'm writing this from Tuscany where real estate agents are currently crying in to their Chianti.  But we lived in France in the early 90s and saw many of our friends and neighbours suffering hugely for the precise same reasons that people are in pain now.  If you have a home, be it your prime residence or second home, and can afford to sit out the current climate, there will eventually be an upswing, it's guaranteed.  I remember in the winter of 91/92 talking to neighbours in the Dordogne who thought the bottom had fallen out of their lives.  But those that managed to hang on are, even today, laughing all the way to the bank.  If you buy a house in France for the right reasons, using your head, you're going to be OK.

[mint]

Good post, l'etrangere.  But, of course, Brits have been spoilt and are used to thinking of their home as some sort of goose that will forever be laying golden eggs.

Then they bring their mindset to areas of France like the Dordogne and expect ever escalating prices.  When a downturn comes, they won't take the effects on board, they try to sell their houses at prices they think they are "worth" and it's no wonder then that they get a shock when nobody would buy them.

I'm not sure what it is with Brits and their houses.  In a year and a half of living in France, I have yet to meet a French person who's mentioned the price of their house to me. 

[Gardengirl]

Interesting end to the last post. I don't talk about the price of our UK house to people or about the price of our French property; the subject just doesn't arise. Do most people really go round discussing such things? We're always talking about all the hundreds of things we are mutually interested in - weather, family, friends, food, health, wines etc etc.

Jo 

[mint]

GG, when did you last go to a dinner party or indeed any social gathering which is attended by Brits?

Believe me, they talk of nothing else in West London.

[Hoddy]

I'm with Gardengirl on this one. I don't talk about house prices to my friends and neighbours in England or the Dordogne.

Incidentally, does anyone have figures for where the highest proportion of British immigrants is ? The Dordogne is often mentioned, but I have the impression that there many more in other areas. We are the only English in our village.

Hoddy

[krusty]

[quote user="Hoddy"]

We are the only English in our village.

[/quote]

What about the only gay in the village [:P]

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=l4zx1ZX8GW4

[babcock]

[quote user="Hoddy"]

I'm with Gardengirl on this one. I don't talk about house prices to my friends and neighbours in England or the Dordogne.

Incidentally, does anyone have figures for where the highest proportion of British immigrants is ? The Dordogne is often mentioned, but I have the impression that there many more in other areas. We are the only English in our village.

Hoddy

[/quote]

Firstly one speakes about 'property' in the UK rather than homes and I have noticed this for about 20 years. Secondarly - we used to live in the Charente and one of the reasons we left was the level of UK immigrants. I defy anyone to go into Leclerc in Ruffec and not hear English spoken at any time, any day. Horses for courses.

[Kingdingaling]

[quote user="babcock"][quote user="Hoddy"]

I'm with Gardengirl on this one. I don't talk about house prices to my friends and neighbours in England or the Dordogne.

Incidentally, does anyone have figures for where the highest proportion of British immigrants is ? The Dordogne is often mentioned, but I have the impression that there many more in other areas. We are the only English in our village.

Hoddy

[/quote]

Firstly one speakes about 'property' in the UK rather than homes and I have noticed this for about 20 years. Secondarly - we used to live in the Charente and one of the reasons we left was the level of UK immigrants. I defy anyone to go into Leclerc in Ruffec and not hear English spoken at any time, any day. Horses for courses.

[/quote]

 

Meaning what?

[Kingdingaling]

[quote user="sweet 17"]

Still looking at houses to buy and cannot work out why prices are falling fastest in Dordogneshire?

Had some friends over from the UK today and they have said the same to me.

Anyone got any theories or inside info?

I'm not sure I want to live in the Dordogne but, if a real bargain comes up, what the hell, I'm not going to turn up my nose!

[/quote]

 

The Dordogne is prettier than the Charente Maritime
You say Dordogneshire, there are just as many brits in the Dordogne than in CM, or Charente or Languedoc

Ask yourself why the Dordogne is known as Dordogneshire, you say its because lots of brits are there, then ask why
its because its beautiful, I have lived all over France so I can say this
The Charente Maritime may be on the coast but its flat, bland and boring
Rediculous post

[oscar]

Almost the first question any of our British B&B guests ask us is "how long have you lived here?" quickly followed by "How much did it cost?".  I don't think any other nationality has ever asked.

[Sunday Driver]

I too am always surprised at people who complain about the level of UK immigrants.  Even more so when they say they've moved house to get away from them.

A bit of an insult to me and everyone else on this forum who's a immigrant.....[8-)]

 

[Chancer]

SD

British people moving to avoid the new influx of British immigrants is to be desired as it spreads them around and avoids ghettos.

I am assuming that the poster who made the comment was British and if not another immigrant, but not sure if they think of themselves that way.

The problem in Dordogneshire and other ghettos is that the natives have sold up and moved away.

I am an immigrant but of the "only gay in the village" variety. I live in a large village but am the only foreigner let alone Brit, yesterday I was outraged to find a charming couple of British tourists eating le menu in my neighbours brasserie, my closely guarded secret is no more after 4 years [:(]

Actually I was a bit worried 2 years ago when informed  "we had a large group of British people in to eat last night, but dont worry they all left when they could not make themselves understood"!

[andyh4]

[quote user="Puzzled"]

I don't understand this downer some  people have about other Brits in France. [/quote]

 

As someone who chose their location in part on the basis of there not being a large British community, and as someone who has in Germany lived in close proximity to a large ex-pat Anglophile community, let me try and give some possible insights.

 

There is a group of Brits (and also other nations) abroad who have charactoristics that I frankly just cannot get on with.

 

Loud, arrogant, rude (especially to and about the local population), expecting (nay demanding) that their chosen location should function as a part of the Empire and not be tried down by tedious foreign bureacracy, who believe that the laws do not need to apply to them when they in any way seem to be a variance with the home laws and their application - or at least their interpretation of them.

 

They fall into two groups regarding the local language, they either don't speak it at all (or barely - couple of beers stuff), or they are totally fluent but will refuse to help anyone else who is not.

 

They are perpetually in contact with one another to the deliberate exclusion of anyone who has the temerity to be born locally.

 

I realise that the stereotype might only apply to a small fraction of the ex-patriot community but I would rather be away from that and choose my friends on the basis of people I can get on with rather than people who have the same mother tongue as me. 

[Panda]

Going back to the OP, sometime ago on here someone wrote that those people who'd bought in the areas that have always seen good growth, beside the sea (La Rochelle, Royan etc.) or in the Alps won't see the same downturn. 

This has always held out quite well but having just got involved in seeking property in the Alps I have seen an unprecedented move to drop prices and so I think no where will escape this downturn.  I viewed two properties 2 weeks ago and today the agents (2 different ones) have called and said the prices have been dropped by 50k, these are not ultra expensive properties and this accounts for a 20-25% drop before negotiations even start.  During my trip the agent had already said the prices are low and people were desperate, it seems the world is in panic mode but as someone said earlier in this thread to sit it out would be the best approach, all this panic just leads to ever lower prices, we are in very weird times!