Property bargains to be had in the Charente

I have just finished showing clients round a selection of properties in the Charente valley, including the magnificent house shown above which is in a prime location right by Cognac golf course.

We really did see some terrific houses - the weather wasn't kind which was most unusual in June but even with leaden grey skies my clients commented on the natural beauty of the shortlist we had put together.

As 2013 progresses it's becoming clearer that many owners see no sign of respite to the "crise financiere" and are willing to accept offers so that they can move on with their life.  This can only be good for the market as the gap between vendors & buyers expectations closes.

Whether it's stood outside the school gates, over dinner with friends or chatting with local agents & notaires I'm constantly hearing tales of houses being sold at well below "sticker price" - at all price levels.

Combine this with the ridiculously cheap cost of borrowing and the time could be right for picking up a property that has both long term capital growth potential and sheer natural beauty.

The houses we visited this week ranged from around €350-500,000 and I'd say that they would sit comfortably alongside any portfolio of country houses that are being offered by my old employers such as Savills, Jackson-Stops & Staff and Chestertons.

Just make sure you do your homework and work with someone who knows the local market intimately - that way you'll be able to negotiate hard and secure a bargain of your own.

www.cognacproperty.com

Property world embraces pedal power

It's pretty clear from my Twitter timeline that the property industry is really embracing the cycling revolution.

Admirably led by the Estates Gazette and their iconic deputy editor @samanthamcclary the major agents, developers, investors and assorted hangers on are all donning their lycra.

The annual Cycle 2 Cannes ride has raised over £1 million pounds for property related charities and is supported by Savills, CBRE, DTZ and other worthies.  It's a ride that I'd love to get involved in and best of all I could cheat and join them halfway down France!

Today sees the start of a female only ride from London to Paris and, again, sees the property industry doing its bit for charity. They are riding 100 miles a day and you can follow them at @PedElle

All of this has driven me to buy myself a new bike to use when I'm seeing local agents or going to take a look around houses close to me.

If it works then I'm buying a tandem to take clients on - the first "eco-friendly" buying agent that not only finds you a house but offers personal training at the same time....now that really is worthy of the word unique that we property folk like so much.

With Chris Froome looking good for Le Tour in a few weeks this cycling boom looks set to continue.  I was contacted by a TV production company yesterday who were quizzing me on cycling in the Charente - sadly I have a face for radio so don't expect to see me on your TV's any time soon but I'm sure that it would make a great feature.  Vine clad hillsides, ancient stone bridges spanning the prettiest stretch of river in France and a cycle friendly culture...what's not to like!

www.cognacproperty.com

Cycling in the Charente

I have had a few people ask if I could expand on my cycling experiences following my post about joining the Velo Club de Jarnac.

As you may know I joined the cycling club during the winter and was a little apprehensive about a) my ability, b) riding in a group and c) my bike.

Well, it turns out that my fears were unfounded and I've really enjoyed being a member of the "poissons rouge" as they are known.

We went out on each Sunday morning throughout the winter and there would usually be 20-30 of us.  We would set off as a group and then after half an hour or so the peloton would split into two with the "racers" (cyclosportifs) going off the front and the "non racers" (cyclotouristes) dropping behind.

I would do my best to stay with the racers and usually managed to do so - simply because the season hadn't started and we were going on flat courses and they were taking it easy.  I have a hybrid bike rather than a road bike which didn't help and a couple of times I found myself drafting behind the support car to take a bit of a rest.

Once the season began the racers would go off each week-end to compete and I have been seeking out local events for each Sunday morning.  We tend to choose the longest routes of between 80-90 km's and these have been a great way of seeing areas & roads you wouldn't normally visit. Some of the scenery around Angouleme can be spectacular and I particularly loved the event that rode through my own village!

We tend to check in at 8.00am and this is a chance to meet riders from other clubs.  The ride itself tends to take around three hours and we don't stop at the "casse croute" or halfway house where the local club will offer coffee, cake and usually a glass of red!

Sometimes we'll join forces with riders of a similar standard from other clubs but the one thing each ride in common has is that I struggle on the hills - the course around Blanzac was particularly tough as it took in the rolling hills and valleys of southern Charente.

This Sunday we're going to Royan & back which will be flatter and is a round trip of 180 km's - by far the longest ride I have ever taken on.  Who knows if we'll make it but I'm really looking forward to it as it will take us through some lovely towns like Pons, Gemozac and Cozes as well as perhaps enjoying an ice cream on the beach in Royan itself.

For any keen cyclists who want a bit of technical info I ride a flat bar Boardman Hybrid Comp and usually average around 28/29 km/h when riding alone.  When in a group this rises to well over 30 km/h.  The club runs with the non racers usually average out at around 25 km/h so are fairly leisurely.  The fact I ride a flat barred bike causes interest with my fellow poissons rouges but there's certainly no snobbery in the club.  They do have some fantastic machines though and it's a little like having a beaten up Peugeot in a garage full of Ferraris.

If you're thinking of cycling in the Charente and want some advice on routes (long or short) then please just ask - my favourite is still the 28 km circuit that follows the river and takes in Bassac, Vibrac, Jarnac and the beautiful bridges and locks that make this area so special.

So what's going on with the Charente property market?

I'm fed up of reading stories in the press about French house prices.

Market commentators tend to speak in such generalisations that the conversations are meaningless.  It's the same in the UK of course - try telling someone in Burnley that their market bears any relation at all to that of London & the south east.

So if the notaires or FNAIM feel that prices are going to fall by between 2-5% this year then good for them.

What is of far more importance to my clients and I is the gap between "sticker price" (what you'll see a house for in an agents window) and "selling price" (what it actually sells for).  Other than keeping your ear to the ground and relying on local gossip then these stats are impossible to come by.

I'm not going to give away any client secrets here but certainly the deals we have been striking have seen a pretty big gap between the two.  Indeed I wrote an article on pretty much this subject in the last issue of FrenchEntrée magazine.  I have copied the article below in its entirety as I think it's an important issue....far more important than whether prices across the country have gone up or down a point or two!

Mind the gap....

 

Oh the memories.....for over twenty years I had to put up with the commute into central London from my suburban house in Surrey.  I'd catch the 7.06am train before jumping onto the tube at Waterloo, then whilst at Savills I'd get off at Green Park and whilst with Chesterton I'd get off at Oxford Circus.  From waiting around in the freezing cold for trains that never came to being jammed into an underground carriage in the heat of summer I have plenty of memories to keep me going whilst I laze around in the Charente sunshine.

 

One phrase stands out above all, every morning I would be popped out of the crowded carriage and be greeted with "please mind the gap".

 

I hadn't heard these words for a long time but this year they seem to be a daily occurence again....just used in a different context.

 

You see 2013 is going to be another difficult year for the French property market.  When I moved to France around 10 years ago there were around 850,000 property sales pa, last year there were around 650,000. Michel Mouillart, the Head of Economics at the Paris-Nanterre University, was quoted recently as saying that around 3,000 estate agencies have had to shut up shop with 10,000 agents losing their jobs.

 

Of course the current economic woes aren't just confined to the French market, indeed it remains one of the most robust in Europe and we should be grateful that we've had what analysts like to call a "slight correction" rather than the decimation seen in say Ireland or Spain.

 

My point though is that it's a buyers market and investors with cash in their pocket know it.

 

This leads me back to "mind the gap" - you see there is now a definite gap between what vendors think their properties are worth and what buyers are prepared to pay for it.  This gap is the main reason for falling transaction numbers and until it is closed we will continue to see a flat market. 

 

Those people selling their homes in 2013 will be the ones who have priced their houses realistically.  They in turn will then probably become a buyer themselves and will find themselves in a position of strength.  The old mentality of "well, we paid €200,000 then spent another €50,000 so we'll put it on the market for €300,000 as you always make money when you sell houses" simply won't wash.

 

If this is your thinking then I'm afraid you're going to have a long wait before selling it unless you are extremely lucky or bought it at a particularly bargain price.....and don't forget that we all think we are getting a bargain when we buy a house but the reality can often be different in a country where getting comparable evidence on house prices can be so difficult.

 

As a buying agent I'm mandated by international buyers to find them a house and then to negotiate the lowest possible price.  It used to be that I would be holding clients back when it came to the purchase price but it's noticeable now that when issuing the mandate they all tell me that they have no intention of paying "window price" and that we will be using my research to strike a hard bargain.

 

Mind the gap!

FNCI - the national federation for buying agents in France

As clients will know I (and the rest of my colleagues within the FrenchEntrée Property Finders network) am a member of the FNCI - the National Fédération of Chasseurs Immobiliers, literally "house hunters".

Having a federation like this is the same concept as traditional agents who belong to the FNAIM which is their national body and well respected throughout France.

The FNCI lobbies Government on behalf of its members and has a quality charter that all members agree to abide by.  Membership comes in handy when describing the role of a buying agent to vendors and local immobiliers as it's a new concept to many of them.

The FNCI have just launched a new website which features the first of a series of videos about looking for a flat or house without the help of a buying agent (above).  It's in French of course but even if you're not fluent you will probably get the gist and see the humour.

Most bodies like this are quite stuffy and staffed by bureaucrats.....I'm happy to say that the FNCI are just the opposite and they are a friendly, professional and forward thinking bunch.  Paying my dues is one of the few cheques I write each year that I don't begrudge.

They must be good!

www.cognacproperty.com

Finding a riverside property in the Charente

The Charente was the "finest stream in the kingdom" of Henry IV and anyone who knows the river will surely back up this fabulous claim.

It's no wonder that I seem to be constantly looking for riverside properties on behalf of clients.  My latest search is for a lovely couple from the West Country in the UK who are looking for an old water-mill to renovate.

The bad news is that I'm struggling to find anything special.  There's plenty of property that has been reduced in price and there's plenty that I have no doubt would be open to offers....but I'm still to find anything that sets my heart soaring.

I'm hoping that this lack of good stock is either a) a blip or b) because my search is limited to water mills - but I fear that 2013 might be the year that international buyers come back to France only to be thwarted in their efforts because new sellers aren't coming to the market.

Sounds strange doesn't it considering that we're still in the midst of a crise financiere, perhaps many vendors are waiting for the Spring and I'm worrying for no reason.

It hasn't been for the want of trying I can assure you - the market is being well and truly scoured from the biggest of agents to small one man bands and from notice boards in the local notaires to the private sale websites and freesheets.

The good news is that my clients aren't out for a few weeks yet so there's still time for me to put a decent short-list together.

Anyway, watch this space for an update throughout the year....I'm confident that I will be active on behalf of cash buyers but will we be able to meet their needs?

Time will tell.

www.cognacproperty.com

Jarnac Cycling Club (Velo Club de Jarnac)

Following my post about integrating into the local community I thought it would be good to share my experience of joining the local cycling club.  If you're only interested in property related posts then turn away now.

Regular readers will know that I had a kind of epiphany before my 50th birthday last year and decided to get fitter and undertake a bit of a bike ride.  Getting up from the couch felt great and I have tried to stay active and keep cycling ever since.

I don't want to mislead you....I've never been particularly sporting and you don't shed thirty years of inactivity overnight.  I'm not going to be entering races but I do fancy riding regularly so I have joined Les Poissons Rouge which is the name of the Jarnac cycling club.

Bizarrely, there is no entry fee, nor annual subscription.  You do however need to pay €50 pa for your licence & insurances and you need a doctors certificate to say that you're in reasonable shape.  You're also encouraged to purchase some items of team kit so that the team looks good when out on a club ride.

It's a friendly club with an excellent local reputation.  There are around 60 members and the Patron is a professional cyclist called Lloyd Mondory who rides for AG2R.  He's from the area and his parents are members - each year he'll come back for a ride or two and I'm particularly looking forward to sharing the peloton with a guy who rides the Tour de France each year.

This week-end I went out for my first ever group ride which was quite a nerve racking experience.  I had no idea how fast they would go or what the etiquette is for riding in a bunch.  Would I be dropped after 500 metres and left to turn around and trudge home by myself?  Unlikely as my father-in-law (who devoted all of 2011 getting me up the Col du Tourmalet) was there too but he takes these rides seriously and you never know!

We met in Jarnac town centre, opposite the imposing Courvoisier chateau.  There were about twenty people there and they're a friendly bunch.  It was sunny & mild so I was bare-legged with no wind jacket.....this caused a mixture of hilarity & consternation as everyone else was wrapped up like polar explorers.  I was also the only person who didn't have a drop handlebar road bike (I ride a Boardman Hybrid Comp as I find it more comfortable and didn't need a second mortgage to buy it) but no-one seemed to give two hoots.

Off we went and it took me twenty minutes or so to get used to the hand gestures and general movement in a group.  Wind resistance is much reduced and you ride 20-30% faster than when on your own.

We cycled for around two and a half hours and the truth is that it was a breeze.  I struggled up the hills because I'm big & heavy but I didn't get dropped and I loved every minute.  I didn't time it but suspect we were averaging around 28-30 kmh and people were chatting throughout.

Whether you are contemplating expat life or are an established expat already I'd heartily recommend joining a club like this and I wish I'd done it sooner. You don't need to be ultra fit either, my friend Paddy joined Jarnac chess team as soon as he arrived here and was soon jetting all over Poitou Charentes for club matches.

As we were riding round, one of the regulars said he liked the fact that my father-in-law and I give the club an international flavour and that they have a Spanish chap join them from June each year.

Wonder if his name is Alberto something......

www.cognacproperty.com

Dismal failure of the Norman Tebbitt "cricket test"

I took my youngest through to Cognac last night for one of her bi-weekly gym practice sessions.

If there's a competition she's proud to wear the club colours but last night had a leotard with a sparkly union flag on the front.

It got me thinking back to 1990 and the infamous "cricket test" suggested by the Tory MP Norman Tebbitt.  He said that those immigrants who root for their native countries rather than the England cricket team lacked loyalty to their new country.

He'd have a fit at some of the things the Downie family get up to but I'd argue strongly that we have integrated well and are a positive force in both local and national life.

Let's start with the "well integrated" bit:

• we all speak the language (albeit in my case with a horrible accent & plenty of mistakes in my conjugation). Indeed, both daughters are within the top 5% of their class in French.
• we pay our taxes - 19.6% TVA on all our sales, income tax, professional tax, taxe d'habitation, taxe fonciere and, of course, the huge social charges to pay for the famously good healthcare, schooling et al.
• we do our bit for the community. Whether it's being a member of the PTA, taking the local school children on field trips or simply frequenting the local bars and restaurants. My proudest moments in France have been when the girls have been chosen to read out the names of fallen soldiers at memorial services.
• every year we help out with the grape picking at our mates vineyard. It's been in his family for generations and it's the highlight of the year.
• we have oodles of other friends locally.  We go to them for dinner or they come to us.  We stopped being "La Famille Anglaise" years ago and are now simply "Les Downies".

Now for the bit that would make Mr Tebbitt choke on his fish & chips:

• I read L'Equipe every day but it's the only French paper I like.  For news other than sport I'll go online to the Guardian, Telegraph or London Standard.
• The only French TV we watch nowadays is the weather and the football on Canal Plus.
• I'm joining the local Jarnac cycling club.  I'll happily wear the club kit on our Saturday club runs but the rest of the week I'll be in my Team Sky jerseys.  This July I'll be cheering on Wiggins & Froome not Thomas Voeckler & Pierre Rolland.
• During the 6 nations I'll invite my French friends round as usual.  But they'll have to enter through a swathe of Union Flags and drink pints of English beer....strangely this never seems to be a problem for them.  They give it to me in spades if France win and they get it back if Les Rosbifs triumph.

I suspect you get my point.  France is my second favourite rugby team, Bordeaux are my second favourite football team and if a Brit doesn't win Le Tour then I hope a french cyclist does.

I don't think that makes me disloyal to France, I just think it makes me loyal to the country of my birth. 

That's as far as I'd got before the gym session ended and it was time to head home for supper.

French onion soup :-)

www.cognacproperty.com

French property market 2012 and prospects for 2013

It's that time of year again - industry folk look back over the last 12 months and make predictions for 2013.

The former is relatively easy but the latter is simply a case of wetting your finger and sticking it in the wind....who knows what will happen to the European economy, the euro itself or the effects of the changes and austerity measures being introduced by our new President.

Let's start with 2012.

On a macro level it looks as though the overall number of French property sales will be around 650,000 which is quite a drop on the 790,000 we saw in 2011.  The market definitely slowed in 2012 and despite the many front page headlines talking about soaring prices in Paris and on the Cote d'Azur I'm dubious that any region is currently showing price growth. 

Latest research from the Notaires de France says that some areas buck the trend and they quote Limoges as seeing a 7% rise, Toulouse an increase of 4.5% and Lille rises of 2.9%.....don't forget though that these figures are already well out of date and I'd take them with a healthy pinch of salt.

Closer to home I'm certainly seeing plenty of local agents dropping prices from what were pretty optimistic levels.  I'm not saying that prices are in freefall or anything dramatic like that but it seems to me that a) only properties in the best locations are selling and b) they have to be priced realistically to do so.

Forecasting anything for 2013 is pretty much a lottery and my family & friends all know that my ability at tipping stocks, shares or the winner of the X Factor is dire.

However, I'd be surprised if transaction numbers for 2013 weren't between the 600-650,000 range, ie showing another slight decrease and another tough year for those of us who earn our money in this arena.

I'm not going to forecast anything to do with prices as the conflicting figures we are presented by the notaires, FNAIM, INSEE and others are meaningless.

What I will say though is that I don't think we'll see many areas being touted as having rises or falls of more than a few percent.  I sense a pretty flat market which, given what is going on in the rest of the world, may not be a bad thing.

As I have said before, international buyers come to France for a mixture of reasons - around 40,000 of them bought in France last year and I'd predict that this number won't change much either way this year.  The sunshine, great food, world class wine and welcoming culture are happily pretty much recession proof!

www.cognacproperty.com

Ed Sheeran plays Little Things at Le Trianon, Paris

One of the great things about living just outside Cognac is the access to live music.

Many of the bars & restaurants have live acts at the week-end and, of course, there's the famous Blues Festival each summer - this year Tom Jones & Sting were the headline acts.

Sometimes you have to go further afield though and having seen Bruno Mars in Nantes we found ourselves in Paris last week-end.

More specifically we were at a terrific venue called Le Trianon in Montmartre. It's a sumptuous theatre and, best of all, it holds just 1,500 people.

The queues for Ed Sheeran began first thing in the morning and the doors didn't open until 7.30pm. We got there an hour early and joined the back of a snaking line.

The theatre was spectacular and intimate - the warm up act "Passenger" set the crowd alight and couldn't stop commenting on how good it was to be so close to the audience.

This theme continued when Ed Sheeran took to the stage. He was in a good mood as the song "Little things" which he had written when he was just 17 and recently given to One Direction had gone to number one in the UK that day. He was proud that it was his first number one and said that he was never going to sing it again as it now belonged to another act.

However.....he asked if he could sing it one last time. Better than that, he liked the intimate atmosphere so much he wanted to strip it back and use just his guitar and his voice....no microphones.

He asked the crowd for absolute silence and the next few minutes made the hairs stand up on the arms of all 1,500 people who were there to witness it. Spellbinding.

You can get a taster from the video above (not mine, pinched from You Tube) but I guess you really had to be there.

Who knows, maybe he'll headline the 2013 Cognac Blues Passions.....

www.cognacproperty.com

A day in the life, or a life in the day....

When I meet new people the two questions that I'm most often asked are "What's it like living in France" and "What do you do for a living"?

I thought that I'd try and answer both questions in a single post by taking you through a typical day (if there is such a thing).

Morning - up early and in the office to answer emails that came in through the night (I'm trying to get a business off the ground with some brokers in Florida and they are six hours behind and tend to mail me in the wee small hours) and to plan my day.

Quick break at 8.10am as it's my turn for the school run and I pack assorted children - some mine - into the car and weave my way through the tractors and grape pickers.

Then it's off to Cognac and environs for some house viewings.  I'm mandated by some UK clients who are looking for a mill or waterside property and I have three properties to see this morning.  Two are hopeless but one could well make the shortlist.

Time for lunch and I stay in Cognac and make an unannounced visit to one of my favourite agents - he happens to be free so we grab a quick "plat de jour" on the main square.  Place Francois Premiere in the centre of Cognac is always full of tourists and today is no exception.  It's also good to see that the hotel on the square has opened again after the refurbishment.  You can get a feel of how good it looks now by seeing it here.

Afternoon - back to the office after lunch to call a notaire.  I have clients buying a house with three lakes - unfortunately the state only has knowledge of one of them so the red tape has become somewhat entangled.  The upshot is that my clients will rent the property for a few months while the paperwork is sorted - not ideal for either party and a potential minefield but probably the best solution.

Then it's on to a new experience for me.  I have clients in Dubai who have been looking to buy a house I found for them at auction.  It's proving difficult as the lawyer handling the sale wasn't too pleased to give us access to see it in the first place (and only did so because I kicked up a fuss) and now doesn't want to let a surveyor in to give his opinion until the official viewing programme starts.  As this is just a few days before the auction itself it doesn't leave much time for making decisions and arranging finance.

I speak to surveyor, avocat and huissier (who has the keys) and wonder why I ever came to this country with it's archaic property processes!

The end of the day is spent working with some of my colleagues in the FrenchEntrée Property Finders network.  This is a collection of buying agents spread across France and I'm a part owner in the business which follows my business model of acting exclusively for the buyer.

The guys at Brittany Gems have just tied up a really nice purchase for some clients and Stephen calls to update me.  He's thrilled - but not as delighted as his client who thanks him for "the most amazing support, you have achieved the practically impossible, given my dream list".

That's pretty much it for the day but I just have time to press "send" on my latest article to the editor of FrenchEntrée magazine.  Hope you like it Justin!

www.cognacproperty.com

Vendange time in the Charente

It's that time of year again.

The school run takes five minutes longer, the roads on my Sunday cycle rides are covered in mud and squashed grapes and most of my French friends are working seven days a week from dusk until dawn.

The sleepy old Charente comes to life at this time of year and I love it.  I was going to make this post about the grape picking process but my friend and near neighbour Andy has done it a million times better than I could in this post. (I have taken the liberty....again....of pinching one of his pics as you will see if you visit his excellent blog "Prunings from the Vines").

Instead I'll give you a little insight into the Cognac Property business empire.

Successful corporates understand the need to make work fun and motivate employees.

Google has a "play" area in its offices to aid creativity among staff.  My lifelong buddy Tim is COO of a big ad agency and has a table football area for use by clients and staff which helps stimulate the creative juices.

I have my "chemin blanc".

You see, most lunch times I take Paxton the black lab out for a walk in the vines and we invariably end up on the same rough track which wends its way back to my garden.  Usually it's deserted and allows me to prioritise work, get my thoughts in order and plan my business.

This week we're sharing the vines with huge machines straight out of War of the Worlds and my attention is diverted.  It's a small price to pay though - Paxton and I take our time and watch as the workers pick the grapes, transfer them onto a trailer, hook them on the tractor then hurry back to the Chai before they get spoilt.

It's a process made all the sweeter in the knowledge that aforementioned friends will undoubtedly be inviting me to birthdays, christenings, weddings and simple dinner parties where I will get to sample the fruits of their labour.

Sweet.

www.cognacproperty.com

French property market report - Summer 2012

Regular readers of this blog will know that there is a real shortgage of information about the French property market when compared to say the UK, USA or Australia.

However, the Notaires de France do their best and a few weeks ago released some figures on the year to date.

It's clear from their figures that transaction numbers are dropping across the country including the previously untouchable Paris market.  They are forecasting a fall of around 15% in the number of sales for 2012 which would bring the total down to a little over 700,000.

They say that Paris will be badly hit but that the areas around Bordeaux, Nice, Toulouse, Lyon and Montpellier will be slightly cushioned.

These figures are total sales and not to be confused with the statistics issued by BNP Paribas which are focused on sales to international buyers only.

This is the third major downturn of my property career - each one seems to last forever when you are in the middle of it but, thankfully, each one has been followed by a dramatic upturn.  The property market is a cyclical one and I'm used to the fact that we seem to have "seven lean years followed by seven years of plenty".

What never seems to change is the bullishness of estate agents despite plenty of evidence to the contrary.  Oh for a euro for every time I hear that "our market is different and thriving" or  "prices in Paris/London/wherever will never fall"....hmmm.

I remember well attending a property conference in the early 1990's in central London - I was on the panel and one of the speakers was an extremely high profile Chief Exec of a huge, listed, property developer.  He gave a morale boosting, upbeat and most enjoyable speech talking about the number of sales they had and how the market was back on its feet.

When he had finished he sat back down and whispered "If anyone believes all that **** they need their head seeing to".

I was still a naive 30 year old and remember being devastated that he didn't truly believe what he had been saying.  It was one of many lessons I learned and I now know that it is part of the industry DNA to talk the market up.

My point is that property sales across France are falling and prices naturally fall with them.  If both sellers and agents recognise this (and price accordingly) then transaction numbers will remain comparatively healthy.  Price sensibly and there are still 700,000 buyers out there!

For info you can get the Notaires de France research here.

www.cognacproperty.com

Moving to France - do I take the plunge?

This is the third long-term recession of my property career and it's clear that most people are cautious about making any kind of major expenditure.  I wish that I had a euro for every time I have heard an estate agent say that they have had a sale lined up but that it's fallen through because the buyer couldn't get financing/didn't like the survey/has lost their job/simply changed their mind.

If you are looking upon your home in France merely as an investment then such caution is obviously justified.  I genuinely think that this country has one of the most stable and reliable property markets in Europe and that there are some cracking bargains to be had but they are increasingly difficult to find and you must do your due diligence before taking the plunge.

However, if you are looking to buy in France for reasons beyond mere financial gain then welcome to the club and get off the fence!

Like most ex-pats I know over here we didn't buy a house in France to make a killing.  We moved here for a mixture of positive reasons including education, healthcare, climate, scenery and the general quality of life.

We left the bright lights of London behind in 2003 and not for a single second have we regretted the decision.  We have watched our children growing up in a secure and spectacular environment, their education to date has been excellent and as a family we are happier and fitter than we have ever been.

Of course, it's not all sunshine and roses - people get ill, it rains, cars break down and roofs leak just as they would anywhere in the world.

My point is that life is not a dress rehearsal.  As the quote goes "It doesn't matter which side of the fence you get off on sometimes. What matters most is getting off. You cannot make progress without making decisions". 

Or even better is the quote from Jean-Paul Sartre "It is only in our decisions that we are important".

The opportunities are here - now, do you really want to turn your dreams into reality?

www.cognacproperty.com

ps: I pinched the picture from a very old friend called Paul Boross who I haven't seen for a while....if you're reading this Paul I hope you don't mind and I hope that your backhand is as lethal as ever! 

The international appetite for French houses

Earlier this summer BNP Paribas published their excellent research on the number of international buyers of French property in 2011.

Getting reliable statistics on the French housing market isn't easy and this report is worth it's weight in gold for anyone who earns their living in this sector.

The headline figure was that there were 39,160 transactions last year involving international buyers which was a fall of 7% on the previous year.  What wasn't quoted in the main report (but was in a smaller second report) is that of these international purchases 3,774 involved buyers from the UK which was a more dramatic 24% drop on the near 5,000 of 2010.

From the qualititive research that they undertook it's pretty clear to me that the underlying demand from the UK is still there but that buyers were reluctant to put their hands in their pockets at that particular time.  The fact that the recession was biting, the pound v the euro was not particularly attractive and we had a French election looming could all have played a significant part.

The domestic French market remained strong with a healthy number of transactions and my gut feeling is that the next couple of years will see the BNP Paribas surveys showing that France comes back into favour with British buyers.

The other headline was that while the number of international buyers had dropped this was offset by their increase in budgets. The overall average budget of UK buyers was €260,000 which was a whopping 14% increase over the €229,000 the previous year.  This increase was mirrored across the board by international buyers as a whole - is this a case of the "smart money" knowing that the French property market is a safe haven compared to many other European asset classes?

The overall conclusion of the BNP Paribas team was that:

"The French real estate market remains a sound investment and today's customers are choosing France more spontaneously than other European countries which have been more affected by the economic climate. This has led to a high level of satisfaction in terms of purchasing".

Comforting words indeed.

www.cognacproperty.com

Tour de France puts France on the map

I'm not a great fan of the Daily Mail but they ran a terrific article about the Tour de France this week.

You can read it here and in it they say:

"The Tour is more than just a race. It is a showcase for what may – and feel free to disagree on this point – well be Europe's most beautiful country. Certainly, France is a place of endless geographical diversity – from the sun-bathed sands of its south shore to the snow-clad peaks of its two major mountain ranges, via a chorus line of cosmopolitan cities that all come armed with epic slabs of history and decadently tempting culinary options.

And the Tour does an able job of showcasing the whole package. I defy anyone to watch some of the astonishing footage that the French broadcasters conjure onto our television screens – the star contenders for the title snaking up a steep Alpine pass, the magnitude of their task underlined by helicopter shots that capture their progress from high above; the peloton powering through fields heavy and golden with corn as horses canter happily alongside – and not feel an urge to grab their passport and immediately leap the Channel".

Six of us spent a terrific day at the stage going into Brive.  The local mairie had set aside an area with do it yourself barbecues - the local butcher was on hand to supply the entrecote, the boulanger had baked fresh bread and the other market traders were there selling cheese, wine, fruit & veg.

We sat munching our food and breaking off chunks of bread while washing it down with a local red before diving around like lunatics at the goodies thrown out by the "caravan".

The cyclists flew up the hill we had carefully chosen and we just had time to get back to the town to huddle around a radio and cheer on Mark Cavendish in the sprint finish.

It's a truly unique experience and, as the Daily Mail says, the winner of the great race is France itself!

www.cognacproperty.com

Pound at four year high against euro

When I turned my PC on this morning it told me that £1 buys around €1.28 which is a four year high seemingly.

This is still a far way from the heady days of €1.45 when I first arrived in France but it's also a significant shift that makes French property more attractive to UK buyers.

With the eurozone in such a mess I wouldn't bet against this trend continuing.

Having been in France for nine years this October I would, however, say that (in my humble opinion) you shouldn't let exchange rates be the driving factor behind your move. 

I genuinely still get a buzz from living in France.  Whether it's simple things like having the Courvoisier chateau next door to my local café or having access to simply sensational healthcare (as I experienced yesterday in my local hospital) it is the everyday positive experiences that should drive your decision making.

Of course, it's not all sunshine and roses here and I don't want to paint a false picture....I just think that the recent buying power given by the strengthening of the pound should be the icing on the cake not the filling!

www.cognacproperty.com

How to make the most of €1 in Jarnac

I'm lucky enough to have been pretty busy recently (and picked up another mandate from a lovely couple in Dubai last night) and popped down to Jarnac first thing to do some banking. 

Sadly I usually do this online but I had some cheques to pay in the old fashioned way.  I'm glad I did as the welcome I get from the staff at BNP Paribas is heart warming. As soon as I walked in the door I was greeted by name by Sylvie the counter clerk and the manager stopped what he was doing to come out, shake my hand and chew the cud for five minutes.  I remember it was like this when I first opened a bank account in 1978 in rural Surrey too.

Anyway, I popped into the market for some bread and fresh fruit & veg before deciding to play hookie and have a sneaky coffee in my favourite bar.  I wasn't being too naughty as my phone is now a mobile office and vibrates discreetly every couple of minutes as emails come in.  It's incredible how quickly this is changing the way we live & work but that's for another time.

The point is that it's a scorcher here today and I plonked myself down on the shady terrace watching the world go by.  Every now and then someone I know would pass by and we would chat about the weather, Euro 2012, the weather, a house that is shortly coming to market, our respective vegetable patches, the weather and the fate of the euro.

I stayed for about an hour and a half - read the Charente Libre, responded to emails from a couple of clients and put the world to rights with Maurice & Martine, the owners.  I could have stayed all morning but had to go into a local mairie to check up on a planning issue.

The bill for my truant morning.....one euro.  Yup, my colleagues in other parts of France will now be going green with envy, the Café du Theatre in Jarnac charge one measly euro (and not a centime more) for the most perfect cup of coffee served on the terrace in one of the prettiest towns of SW France. Local networking comes free.

Now that's good value!

www.cognacproperty.com

Discover Poitou Charentes

Here's a nice little video I came across on You Tube.  It gives a flavour of life here in SW France, from the chic boutiques and historic harbour in La Rochelle, to the thrills and spills of Futuroscope and the rolling vineyards of "Cognac Country".

I thought I'd also share the photos below.  I took them yesterday by the river in Bourg Charente.

Each year the locals take to the charente in hand made boats and have a mightily competitive race downstream.  This year entrants included bath tubs, a "Cool Runnings" bobsleigh, a campsite and a ladybird.  Not sure who won as I was busy avoiding the Jamaican bobsleigh team who suddenly came ashore looking for new recruits.

It really was fun to see how much time and effort young and old alike had put into the event. My favoutite was probably a simple "star wars" creation which Dad had obviously cobbled together in his garage and was proudly piloting as his wife and young son warded off imaginary attackers with their laser guns and Jedi swords.

It was one of those lazy Sunday afternoons, spent in the sunshine with friends, that will stay in the memory for a long time.....well at least until next years competition which we have vowed to enter as a home made "Tour de France" boat.

www.cognacproperty.com

Ideal holiday home for sale privately in the Charente

Town house in sought after village with commerce, near Cognac

Private sale - €189,000

Four bedroom/two bathroom townhouse with home office & large garage

10 minutes from Cognac town centre

This 19th century house is in immaculate condition and faces onto the historic church of St Meme les Carrieres. The village has a co-op, two boulangeries, popular bar/restaurant, chemist and post office as well as water-skiing facilities, fishing lake, tennis courts and football pitch.

Ground floor:
The front door opens onto a tiled entrance hall which runs the length of the house and leads through to the courtyard garden at the rear of the house. To the left is a fully fitted kitchen with separate utility room. To the right is a large (36m2) reception room with tiled floor and exposed beams.

First floor:
The stairs rise to a large landing with fitted cupboards and three double bedrooms, all of which have beautiful wooden floorboards and two of which have exposed beam ceilings. At the far end of the landing is a slate tiled shower room and separate wc.

Second floor:

A second staircase leads to an enormous master bedroom with exposed beams and large ensuite bathroom with bath, washbasin and wc.

Courtyard garden & home office:

To the rear of the house is an attractive courtyard garden with barbecue and dining area. The home office has high speed broadband, heating and lighting.

Garage:
To one side of the courtyard is a huge double height barn/garage which could easily be converted into extra accommodation.

Orchard:
The house has an orchard garden which is situated behind the church. The orchard is 634m2 with views over the Charente valley and contains cherry, apple, pear, walnut and hazelnut trees.

The house has mains drainage, oil central heating, was rewired in 2005 and is easy to secure as all windows have wooden shutters. The pretty market town of Jarnac is less than five minutes by car while Cognac is around 10 minutes away.

Contact: info@grahamdownie.com or call +33 (0)5 45 32 46 41