Last Sunday we went to the French Property Exhibition. It did nothing to make us think we were on the wrong track. We had a chat with some estate agents, solicitors and mortgage companies. It was a good start to finding out a little about the logistics of moving and getting set up.
We are considering a number of choices;
Buy a holiday home which we can use and rent out when we aren't.
Buy somewhere to live and move out lock, stock and barrel, possibly renting out a couple of rooms on a B&B basis.
Buy somewhere to live and move out lock, stock and barrel with attached gite(s) to provide rental income
Buy an up and running business and start a new life.
The first three have been on the cards for a time but the latter has popped up because the place we stay at in Thezan Les Bezier is likely to be up for sale next year. It's tempting. Very tempting. We don't know yet what they will be looking for and it might just be outside what we can manage but we'll see.
One other thing that the exhibition threw up was that we are now also considering a different area of France if we go with the first three options. Languedoc Roussilon has been our first choice because we know it pretty well and like it there, but as we have been looking at French property prices, there are some excellent bargains in the Charente Maritime area, that's towards La Rochelle, Poitiers, Sevres. We weren't really interested in the area as it is the Atlantic Coast by the Bay of Biscay so thought the weather wouldn't be anything special. It is. Exactly the same temperatures as the South. To give you an idea what we are talking about in terms of value....
This costs about the same as our two bedroom flat in Isleworth. (This is a different Department but is comparable)
For those who fancy a slightly grander property, for the equivalent of a three bedroom flat in Richmond, or three bedroom house by us, you might fancy this.
If you are on a budget and want to do a bit of sprucing up this might appeal.
None of these are particularly atypical, each day brings 30 or 40 similar properties across France, these are just some of the properties that went online yesterday.
But which way to go? I think another holiday soon might help clarify things. Or maybe two or three. But whichever option we go with I think that's the way things are heading sooner or later, the timing's partly up to the the Gods of Chance and Camelot.
