London Standard - Brits are moving to the charente...

Nice to see some comments from yours truly in this article from the Homes & Property section of the London Standard.

"Brits want old Charentaise stone houses with pool and views over the vines," says Graham Downie of Cognac Property. Outside Cognac a four-bedroom house costs £139,250 though Downie suggests budgeting £217,280 to £261,100 for a detached property with views. "In Cognac or Jarnac a two or three-bedroom town house costs £87,030, or £130,550 for something special," says Downie.

I did get castigated by my friend Tim (who as MD of the most profitable ad agency in the WPP empire should know his stuff) for using the word "Brits".  He says:

"By the way, using the phrase 'Brits' is the equivalent of saying trap (instead of bunker) or calling it the British Open - hang your head".

My apologies to all - I blame Samantha Fox and Mick Fleetwood.

www.cognacproperty.com

Rightmove chairman sells £8 million of shares

Reports today that Ed Williams, the founding MD of Rightmove, has sold just under £8 million of shares in the company. This represents around half of his holding.

My feeling is that this is indeed the right move for Mr Williams as it (coincidentally?) coincides with the ratcheting up of the marketing for the Google property portal.

Rightmove is such a dominant force in the UK residential property scene that I can't see it being knocked off its' number one perch for a while.  However, I certainly can see a seismic shift in the medium term and much will depend upon the appetite of Google and what size slice of the pie it wishes to consume.

Andrew Barber and his team at Revolution:PR have written a most interesting article on this whole debate and you can read their thoughts here.

Meanwhile if Mr Williams is looking for a safe haven for his £8 million there are one or two decent investment properties around the Cognac area that look a better bet than the volatile stock market or the over-valued UK property arena.

www.cognacproperty.com

Ten top chateau's to buy or rent in France

Just been reading about some of these lesser known chateau's to buy or rent in France.

The one pictured above is in Anjou and is my favourite - you can hire the Empress Suite from a very reasonable sounding €200 per night.

When I set my business up I was sure that all my mandates would be to find properties like these and that the average purchase price would be €1 million upwards.

Well, seven years in and my average purchase price for clients is a far more modest €280,000 - indeed just a couple of months ago I helped some clients find a cracking house for under €100,000 all in.

I'm also being asked more and more to find decent plots of building land for clients to do their own thing.

As you probably gather I'm really looking forward to The France Show at Earls Court next month.

One of the most interesting things will be to see what kind of enquiries it brings for my colleagues in the more glamorous parts of France like Chamonix and Nice.

Who knows, I may even stumble across some clients who would like help in finding one of the beautiful chateau's we have in and around Cognac....now that would alter my annual statistics a tad.

www.cognacproperty.com

waiting for my .......@gs.com enquiries

Interesting article from the Sunday Times about the return of the bonus culture in the city.

Any of you bankers at Goldman Sachs (or indeed any other financial institutions) looking for an innovative way of spending your money should look no further.

Not only is Cognac renowned throughout the world as the home of Remy Martin, Courvoisier, Hennessy and Martell but it's a beautiful town in it's own right. Just look at what it has to offer:

• second sunniest part of France


• airport with direct flights to the UK


• TGV access to central London


• Glorious chateau's with views over the vineyards or townhouses in the historic old quarter


• choice of michelin restaurants or sampling the rustic 10€ local "plat de jour"


• the caché associated with one of the worlds top 10 brands

So, @GS people, it's time for an investment that you can make with your heart as well as your head.

Just imagine the envious looks on your colleagues faces as you sneak away from the dealing desks to compare your week-end pad in Cognac with their dull old bolt holes in Cornwall or Shropshire.

www.cognacproperty.com

A guide to the famous cognac houses

We're spoilt for choice here when it comes to visiting the great cognac houses.

Hennessy, Martell, Courvoisier they all offer something different on their tours so here's a quick guide as to our personal favourites.

Let's start with Remy Martin as it's the first tour we did. They are based just outside cognac town centre and the highlight is a "little train" tour around the manicured grounds and through the cellars. Of course it finishes with a tasting (accompanied by some tasty little cakes) and the chance to splash out €1500 on a bottle of Louis XIII....which is the cognac that Bryan Brown & Tom Cruise immortalised in the film called Cocktail.

If you want to stay in cognac town centre try Hennessy who sell more than 40% of the worlds cognac. You can find them on the quayside and this means that during the tour you get a chance to go on their private launch and cross the river to view the cellars. They have just released a special edition of VS cognac to commemorate the inauguration of Barack Obama with a black label, gold lettering and "In honour of the 44th president" written on it.

Staying in the heart of the town centre you can visit the Otard chateau. Less well known than the others it has the prettiest setting and the family origins date back to 849. The chateau was built between the 13th and 16th centuries and was the birthplace of Fraancois 1er.

Finally how about visiting the stunning Courvoisier HQ set on the banks of the river charente in Jarnac (about 10 mins from Cognac). They use the familiar outline of Napoleon Bonaparte for their marketing claiming that it was his favourite drink (and who am I to argue). It's a truly beautiful setting for a cognac tour and Jarnac has plenty of other attractions to offer on a day out.

There are plenty of other big brand names to try out but these are the ones we like best. Try them all on a rainy day but just make sure that someone else is driving!

www.cognacproperty.com