What to Look for When Buying a Property in France
Or buying a house anywhere - or I suppose buying anything really - this is the ultimate "ball of string" question.
From the correspondence I receive, the description of the house most desired in France seems to be a traditional stone farmhouse or cottage, on the outskirts of a classic and charming village, with a little land, perhaps enough for a horse and with a view across the adjacent vineyards and hills, ideally with the sea or a lake in the distance, or perhaps with a fishing lake or river at the bottom of the garden.
Your personal choices and reasons for any purchase are unique to you. I am often asked why we moved to France with our very young family 17 years ago. My answer depends on who is asking.
If they are French friends I talk about the community spirit, the republican (or democratic depending on their views) values, the superb education or the wonderful food.
If they are other Brits who have moved or are moving here I talk about the superb health services, the low cost of superb wine, the sunshine, the crazy French or the charm of renovating crumbling stone ruins that once could be picked up for the price of a cheap car.
My real reasons for leaving the UK and coming here in the early 1990's ? - you will have to meet me in a local cafe and chat over a long lunch to discover the answer.
Today the reason is that I have just walked 146 meters up the road to an excellent boulangerie and come home for fresh coffee with warm bread and croissants tucked under my arm, they were still warm from the oven when I put them on our table.
I know it is 146 meters as our house number is number 146, but this does not mean there are 145 other houses before the beginning of the road which starts by the church in the center of the village, it means that our house, which happens to be the seventh house, is exactly 146 meters from the church (the boulangerie and the cafe). The house next door to us is number 140 and the one before that is number 128.
This is a perfect example of French logic and so very sensible if you are walking or delivering the post. But is is very confusing for giving instructions to friends coming here by car.
===
My advice about choosing a property in France is first to go to as many cafes in as many villages or towns you possible can in the area you are interested in. Sit quietly and enjoy a few glasses with a local lunch or supper. Listen to the people in the bar, do the people there seem friendly, do they ask you if they can help, ask you if you are on holiday or looking for a property? With so many ex-pats now living abroad, the odds are that a fair proportion will be speaking English.
The important point I am trying to make is that the "soul" of a community in France tends to focus around the local cafe. Every community is different and two villages only a couple of kilometers apart can have "personalities" as different as Venus or Mars. It is not the houses that make up a village, it is the people.
So instead of going to estate-agents and looking at lists of properties, first find the corner of France (or wherever) that you feel at home in and that suits you, and then look for the home.
Many other factors will affect your choice, schooling, health care, leisure preferences, climate etc. My advice is don't get too influenced by views and scenery from the terrace, you can't see it at night and a wonderful view can only get spoilt. You never own a view anyway and the best ones are from other peoples homes or from the free and open countryside when you can benefit from a fresh perception and are not irritated by a tree in the way, sewage farm just down the road or a huge electricity pylon which too frequently happens. Familiarity breeds contempt.
Me, I'm sticking to the smell of fresh bread and for seeing views can walk, with the dogs, another 146 meters the other way, out of our village to be in fields with views of mountains.
Once you have found the community you wish to live in, then start looking for properties which meet your needs and wishes.
===
Local estate agents and the millions of Internet sites with have listings of properties - the French way of listing properties, unlike the centralised services in the USA and UK (it is beginning to change) means you will find the same property described in many diferent places at differing prices.
Due to the huge competition between agents, the listings you find very rarely tells you where the property is or shows you enough detial to see what the front of the property looks like. This secrecy is to stop you, or other agents, finding the property and going directly to the owners.
However, only about half the properties for sale in France are listed or sold through estate agents. The rest are sold direct by the owner person to person (particulier a particulier). Many Internet sites cater for this, but the biggest source could be the lists held by the Notaires.
Every property in France has to be sold through a Notaire and their fees and taxes collected are unavoidable and not negotiable, Owners often give the Notaire instructions to sell and a lot of estate management and other legal sales are only dealt with by Notaires.
Visiting local Notaires and looking at their websites should be an important part of your research - I have written some more information about this in an article - PropertyPricesInFrance -
Once you have chosen your community and found your house, you can decide if this home is right for you - only you can decide this, it is only worth what its value is to you, nobody else.
By law the seller now has to supply current expert certification for things like lead, asbestos, termites (if in a designated area) and insulation efficiency. The seller is also legally obliged to make you aware of any defects or problems they should know about (such as drainage or flood zoning etc) you have a legal cooling off period after signing a contract to buy (compromis). But structural surveys are not usually required and there can be legal issues over rights of way or even ownership which Notaires are supposed to sort out, but in our experience can miss.
Things like wealth tax, inheritance laws, marriage contracts and other differences in the French system should be carefully gone into. These points often make the relatively small investment independent advice a very good idea.
Having finished my warm bread and fresh coffee, I am now going to take the dogs 146 meters down the road into the countryside for a walk along the river in the bright January sunshine before lunch (pot au feu).
===
Tony Tidswell lives in the South of France and writes about the property and travel business. He has created a number of very successful websites for real-estate and vacation rentals as well a a number of other Internet businesses.
These include work for the well established British estate agents on the Cote D'Azur Coast and Country and his new online business helping people find and create Fractional ownership opportunities Harmony Ownership.
Write to him through his personal website, named after a village near the Mediterranean Nizas.com has been the source of inspiration for people coming to the south of France since 1997.
From the correspondence I receive, the description of the house most desired in France seems to be a traditional stone farmhouse or cottage, on the outskirts of a classic and charming village, with a little land, perhaps enough for a horse and with a view across the adjacent vineyards and hills, ideally with the sea or a lake in the distance, or perhaps with a fishing lake or river at the bottom of the garden.
Your personal choices and reasons for any purchase are unique to you. I am often asked why we moved to France with our very young family 17 years ago. My answer depends on who is asking.
If they are French friends I talk about the community spirit, the republican (or democratic depending on their views) values, the superb education or the wonderful food.
If they are other Brits who have moved or are moving here I talk about the superb health services, the low cost of superb wine, the sunshine, the crazy French or the charm of renovating crumbling stone ruins that once could be picked up for the price of a cheap car.
My real reasons for leaving the UK and coming here in the early 1990's ? - you will have to meet me in a local cafe and chat over a long lunch to discover the answer.
Today the reason is that I have just walked 146 meters up the road to an excellent boulangerie and come home for fresh coffee with warm bread and croissants tucked under my arm, they were still warm from the oven when I put them on our table.
I know it is 146 meters as our house number is number 146, but this does not mean there are 145 other houses before the beginning of the road which starts by the church in the center of the village, it means that our house, which happens to be the seventh house, is exactly 146 meters from the church (the boulangerie and the cafe). The house next door to us is number 140 and the one before that is number 128.
This is a perfect example of French logic and so very sensible if you are walking or delivering the post. But is is very confusing for giving instructions to friends coming here by car.
===
My advice about choosing a property in France is first to go to as many cafes in as many villages or towns you possible can in the area you are interested in. Sit quietly and enjoy a few glasses with a local lunch or supper. Listen to the people in the bar, do the people there seem friendly, do they ask you if they can help, ask you if you are on holiday or looking for a property? With so many ex-pats now living abroad, the odds are that a fair proportion will be speaking English.
The important point I am trying to make is that the "soul" of a community in France tends to focus around the local cafe. Every community is different and two villages only a couple of kilometers apart can have "personalities" as different as Venus or Mars. It is not the houses that make up a village, it is the people.
So instead of going to estate-agents and looking at lists of properties, first find the corner of France (or wherever) that you feel at home in and that suits you, and then look for the home.
Many other factors will affect your choice, schooling, health care, leisure preferences, climate etc. My advice is don't get too influenced by views and scenery from the terrace, you can't see it at night and a wonderful view can only get spoilt. You never own a view anyway and the best ones are from other peoples homes or from the free and open countryside when you can benefit from a fresh perception and are not irritated by a tree in the way, sewage farm just down the road or a huge electricity pylon which too frequently happens. Familiarity breeds contempt.
Me, I'm sticking to the smell of fresh bread and for seeing views can walk, with the dogs, another 146 meters the other way, out of our village to be in fields with views of mountains.
Once you have found the community you wish to live in, then start looking for properties which meet your needs and wishes.
===
Local estate agents and the millions of Internet sites with have listings of properties - the French way of listing properties, unlike the centralised services in the USA and UK (it is beginning to change) means you will find the same property described in many diferent places at differing prices.
Due to the huge competition between agents, the listings you find very rarely tells you where the property is or shows you enough detial to see what the front of the property looks like. This secrecy is to stop you, or other agents, finding the property and going directly to the owners.
However, only about half the properties for sale in France are listed or sold through estate agents. The rest are sold direct by the owner person to person (particulier a particulier). Many Internet sites cater for this, but the biggest source could be the lists held by the Notaires.
Every property in France has to be sold through a Notaire and their fees and taxes collected are unavoidable and not negotiable, Owners often give the Notaire instructions to sell and a lot of estate management and other legal sales are only dealt with by Notaires.
Visiting local Notaires and looking at their websites should be an important part of your research - I have written some more information about this in an article - PropertyPricesInFrance -
Once you have chosen your community and found your house, you can decide if this home is right for you - only you can decide this, it is only worth what its value is to you, nobody else.
By law the seller now has to supply current expert certification for things like lead, asbestos, termites (if in a designated area) and insulation efficiency. The seller is also legally obliged to make you aware of any defects or problems they should know about (such as drainage or flood zoning etc) you have a legal cooling off period after signing a contract to buy (compromis). But structural surveys are not usually required and there can be legal issues over rights of way or even ownership which Notaires are supposed to sort out, but in our experience can miss.
Things like wealth tax, inheritance laws, marriage contracts and other differences in the French system should be carefully gone into. These points often make the relatively small investment independent advice a very good idea.
Having finished my warm bread and fresh coffee, I am now going to take the dogs 146 meters down the road into the countryside for a walk along the river in the bright January sunshine before lunch (pot au feu).
===
Tony Tidswell lives in the South of France and writes about the property and travel business. He has created a number of very successful websites for real-estate and vacation rentals as well a a number of other Internet businesses.
These include work for the well established British estate agents on the Cote D'Azur Coast and Country and his new online business helping people find and create Fractional ownership opportunities Harmony Ownership.
Write to him through his personal website, named after a village near the Mediterranean Nizas.com has been the source of inspiration for people coming to the south of France since 1997.
posted by Harmony at 3:54 PM
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