French Farm Houses – The French Country Life For You?
One of the main attractions of France for many people is the beautiful countryside and the amount of space people have. Add to this a general lack of traffic in rural areas and it’s no surprise that old French farmhouses are in demand with foreign buyers.
If this is the sort of French property you’re looking for there’s even more good news – most of the French don’t want them!
It’s not that there’s anything wrong with them, but in some ways it’s not an easy time for rural France. Day To Day Car Insurance . Arizona foundation repair . Farming in general is thriving but has become more mechanised and so employs fewer people. The same is true of other rural professions. Probably the only growth area is tourism. Fewer jobs mean that young French families have no option but to move closer to the towns and cities to find work.
You also have to consider that the average French farmhouse probably needs some work and sympathetic renovation doesn’t come cheap. In many instances it’s cheaper to buy a new home than refurbish an old one and whilst the French are often seen as romantics they’re also extremely practical.
The result is that all over France there are rural properties for sale. Comcast Specials . Almost invariably these come with a reasonably sized plot of land and barns, stables or other outbuildings. By most peoples standards they’re not expensive either. It’s true that prices have risen quite dramatically over the last ten or fifteen years but this has levelled off and whilst the trend is still upwards in most areas it’s just a few percent per annum now.
So for foreign buyers, from the UK, Holland and Germany for example, these properties represent tremendous value for money.
So is there any down-side to buying French farmhouses? Well this is where we need to take a practical view ourselves and leave the rose-tinted glasses to one side!
It’s not easy to find properties in rural France that area in excellent condition and when you do, they attract a premium. They’re not only popular with foreign buyers but also with Parisians, many of whom like to get out of the city at the weekends. That’s not to say everything else is falling down but as we’ve already said you will probably find most places need a bit of work and this is an area where you need to consider your budget carefully.
Some friends of ours recently bought an old farmhouse for around 100,000 Euros. When it’s finished it will have six bedrooms and four bathrooms. They’re quite practical people ad are doing quite a lot of the work themselves but the work is going to cost them in the region of another hundred thousand.
Now I don’t think two hundred thousand Euros is really any money at all for a six bedroom house in a beautiful area (with only deer for neighbours) but the important point is that the renovation work is doubling their original spend.
It’s really just a question of doing a bit of research and getting good advice so you know what you’re getting yourself into. A French farm house offers challenges that a town house doesn’t but the rewards are superb. I wholeheartedly recommend it.
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