I was one who “took advantage” of the 80’s boom. I bought my little flat in Hastings when the landlord of the block I was living in wanted us all out to redevelop and paid us £1000 (a lot of money in those days!) to move out. I just wanted a home to live in. I could have overextended myself - mortgage lenders were willing to lend me half as much again as I asked for but the way I looked at it was how much can I guarantee in wages each week without overtime or expenses, therefore on that monthly repayment what could I afford to borrow. The flat cost me £16000 and I sold it 3 years later for £39000! I was able to buy a little terraced house in Hull for cash and a round-the-world air ticket so packed in my job and travelled for the best part of a year. I never anticipated how hard it would be to find work when I returned so after a number of agency jobs I put the house up as security for a business loan and bought my own truck. Happy as Larry just jogging along till the unexpected happened and I got pregnant. I ended up having to sell the house to pay off the loan (but left with no debts and my integrity intact) but have been stuck in a series of rentals since then.
My partner and I moved to France with the hope of buying something here as there was no chance of ever getting back on the housing ladder in the UK - he having lost his house to a greedy ex (nothing to do with me!)
I am sure there are many of us with similar stories. Not looking to make money out of it (although getting pleasure out of doing a place up), just wanting a home where we can put down roots, grow our own veg and become part of a community.
By the definitions used, I am rich once a month and poor the rest!
Like most our 2nd home was empty and in a poor shape, simply didn’t appeal to any of the low income hard up families of France. We, like many rescued it, improved it and then some criticise us and say we should pay lots more tax when we already pay the same as the locals but seldom actually use the facilities we pay for.
As mentioned above - it’s not about paying tax, it’s about managing a commune that changes from bursting at the seams in summer to a ghost town in winter. It can seem a bit schizo for year-round residents who can feel at the mercy of the influx and outflux of second homers and end up feeling it’s not “their” commune any more.
Remember, this is about holiday home hotspots, not communes where there are one or two holiday homes.
Surely the local businesses benefit from the influx, enough to carry them through the quieter times? Better than dead all the time?
I don’t think it works like that. You can’t survive on fresh air from September to next July.
What tends to happen is that seasonal businesses (pizza parlours etc) spring up to cash in on the summer visitors, and the locals resent those too.
I think you mean that “creating something”, in renovating an old property, adds to its value, and it becomes saleable at a higher price, creating a profit over costs and expenses?
There will be winners and losers in every economic situation, adapt or close is the thing. Plenty of pool builders got rich during the good times of the UK influx. They have mostly closed as the numbers coming have died off, some adapt to hot tubs others sit back and moan. Pool building is a prime example of very seasonal work where you have to put money by for the closed season and or have another skill.
It’s very tricky to find anything that lasts long in the modern world and small/medium villages are dying off. The only growth industries in France are pharmacies and the tax offices.
No, not at all. Creating something to me was taking a battered building that fell out of use 50 years ago, and was just a shell on the point of falling down, and giving it a new lease of life hopefully for 100 years or more. We have respected its history as a woodturners workshop and tried to keep every scrap of original material that hadn’t collapsed or been eaten by woodworm. When we (or our descendants) eventually sell I don’t expect we will make a penny! What gives us more pleasure is comments like we received from guests who left this morning”Sehr liebevoll restauriertes Haus mit allen Finessen”.
one of my most favourite sketches. Of course! John Cleese too, I forgot!
And to keep young people in those communities they need something better that seasonal waiting or cleaning jobs. So seasonal influx of second home owners is matched with seasonal influx of workers to service them, and that doesn’t keep schools and post offices open.
Jane, I understood your own kind of creating, as not for profit. You wrote about your daughters four renovations, and I thought, at once, she may have found, as I did myself, that it can be immense fun, to find perhaps, a horrible old building, make it solid and comfortable, with some imaginative extras, and sell for a profit. Make an income, renovating.
There’s no way I’m about to tear anyone down, for doing exactly as I did myself.
Im enjoyng all the thoughts written on this topic!.
John, you have faith in the free market. I have no doubt at all, that its a workable system, however, I do not feel that it can be left to run itself.
There has to be careful observation and control.
With respect, John… I’m not sure where you get your info.
I’m baffled about tax offices being a growth industry. Tax offices provide a public service but they’re 100% controlled by the state, and their days are limited because France has invested a lot in its public information system, and more and more is being done online.
Pillars of the French economy include energy, farming/food processing, technology and tourism, they have been for decades and will continue to be, because they provide employment on a large scale. Pool builders can come and pool builders can go but they don’t impact on the national economy, they’re a very local phenomenon at best. Relatively few folk in northern France have pools - what do you suppose the pool-owning population of Paris and Ile de France is?
Pharmacies are struggling. They have been fighting to keep the monopoly of selling over the counter drugs, but will probably lose this war eventually, and lose the steady income this provides. There’s also a reduction in selling homeopathic products as the reimbursement reduces, and the different way people organise their health care now. Particularly in rural areas it is predicted that many pharmacies will close as they can’t compete with the new low cost pharmacies.
Perhaps eastern Vendee is bucking the trend, but what I see here is Pharmacies having fancy new shop fronts and advertising lights installed, and in some cases relocating to nearby and larger purpose built premises. Certainly looks like they are making money hand over fist and they are never short of customers. The newly built pharmacy in the market town near us often has a queue of customers despite having 3 service positions open and manned at the same time.
As someone born and bred in a seasonal community, my view is that having a large proportion of 2nd homes in a community can be both a blessing and a bind depending on how it is managed by the locals.
If things are arranged so that 2nd homes are supporting the community it’s a blessing to have them, but if it’s badly managed then it’s a definite bind.
Often what is needed is a few astute local ordonances to help create a situation where the 2nd homes support the community rather than being the death of it.
Basically, if the local year round residents make money from the situation then all is well.
The French have to be the biggest hypochondriacs in Europe.
Precisely, state owned offices are a job for life employer, the ability of France to cut red tape lengthways ensures it.
Energy, you don’t need many to run an automated nuclear power plant, wind farms maybe.
Food, no where near as many farmers but production kept up by bigger and bigger machines.
Tourism has died back tremendously outside of Paris. Loads of gite owners suffering, brother in law has 10 French families to 1 UK, the Dutch still come but it’s a lot quieter. Glad we gave it up.
There are obviously regional differences, as a department the Charente Maritime has seen for a long time a small continual increase in population due in part to the retired moving here for the better climate, this in turn has meant a greater need for medical services such as pharmacies, physios and specialist shops selling medical equipment.
Whilst there is a saturation of gites most seem to survive and with tourism playing an important role in the economy there has been an investment in public campsites etc which draws in 0000’s every season. On the flipside the smaller towns are struggling as the young move to where the jobs are be that La Rochelle or further afield to Bordeaux both of which are booming.
One thing which I have seen is that bars, restaurants and hotels cannot find the staff as the young don’t want to ‘wait’ anymore, similarly the guy who runs the nearest vineyard now employs ‘gangs’ of workers from outside the department due to a lack of local labour.