Finding Affordable Property in France to Fuel Your Dreams of French Living
Published on Monday, November 09th, 2009
We Brits have a particular love for France and all things French – despite the bickering that goes on between both nations on certain levels, particularly sporting ones, we admire a great deal about France in general, and this leads many Brits to dream about owning a home across the Channel for short breaks, for retirement, or for a brand new life away from the hustle and bustle of Britain.
In this article we’re going to go on the hunt for affordable property in France to help fuel your dreams of French living. After all, it’s one thing longing to hop across the Channel, it’s quite something else to be able to afford to with a weakened pound and a lack of mortgage financing.
The good news is that there are some real bargain finds even in this day and age, and as long as you’re not dead set on living in central Paris or on the French Riviera, you may well be inspired by this report to go and make your property dreams come true in France.
We’re going to dispel a few French property myths and right a few French property wrongs in this report because we’ve had a string of emails asking us questions directly related to buying a home across the Channel and have deduced that there is a lot of confusion out there!
Expats are an interesting yet unusual breed by and large – with people from very different backgrounds absolutely no more or less likely to want to move to live abroad and get away from the UK. It seems that anyone and everyone has reasons to move overseas and issues to prevent them remaining in Britain, but the one thing that does differentiate between groups of expats is that some research their move and some don’t.
There has been a 7% decline in the numbers of us taking holidays abroad according to the Office for National Statistics, and those of us who are venturing abroad are doing so for fewer days. The opinion of many in the tourism industry is that 2009 will be a particularly tricky year for the European tourism market too, as Britons are reluctant to venture into the eurozone where their pound buys them so much less nowadays.
Christmas 2008 in one of France’s most popular ski resorts, namely Chamonix, was surprisingly quiet - Britons were conspicuous by their absence thanks to the weak pound, and even the French were staying away and saving their euros.
Paris is possibly the most attractive city in the world for would-be expatriates to live in – it has something for everyone, it is historic, beautiful, culturally rich, it’s chic, sophisticated, romantic and quite simply a dream location for many. Professional expats are particularly attracted to the thought of one day living and working in Paris – if only for a few months or years – and it is even a city favoured by international families because the standard of living and quality of life are so high.
We’ve touched on the concept of Euro-commuting at Shelter Offshore before. It’s a concept that has become more appealing since the new Eurostar terminal opened at St. Pancras International, and it is now possible to travel to and from France and land up right in the heart of central London with minimum fuss and maximum comfort.
