I would think the pharmacies get quite a boost in summer. What with Aoutats and mosquitos, sunstroke and sunburn and tummy issues. Must do a roaring trade.
Lack of local labour for agricultural work, no different from UK then.
Donāt make the mistake of assuming that everyone who works in government offices is a fonctionnaire with a job for life; theyāre not.
Energy - well Enedis alone employs around 40,000 employees in France and has a turnover of around 13bn ā¬. TOTAL employs around 30,000 people in France and nearly 100,000 worldwide, and has a turnover of around 209bn dollars. Then thereās the other energy companies.
Agroindustry - employs around 525,000 people, turnover around 180 bn.
Tourism - turnover around 160 bn ā¬, 1.27 m employees in tourism related industries. Gites arenāt what make Franceās tourism industry tick.
Pharma industry - seems to be very secretive about its chiffres clƩ, they get lumped in with other manufacturing industries. Retailers are a tip of the industry. I imagine high street pharamcies still turn a pretty profit but compared to energy, food and tourism the pharma industry is peanuts in the national economy. It seems to employs around 3,300 people.
Not sure how we got on to this in the context of second homes, but maybe it does kind of illustrate the divide between the nuts and bolts France that has made the country what it is, and the perceptions of people who arenāt fully invested here and only see whatās on the surface.
I think you hit a nail on the head there.
There is a vast difference between living in a community that sets out to attract tourists and are geared up for that, and living in a community that never set out to be seasonal but had it thrust upon them.
As said earlier in the thread - communes tend to not like being forced into change their character. You can say that is a fault, but itās human nature, people like to live their lifestyle that theyāre comfortable with and donāt like change imposed on them.
Driving across France as I have many times there are so many empty villages and small towns barely anyone around. If these picturesque places get a boost from 2nd homes that has to be better than buildings allowed to crumble.
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Sanofi, employees around 25000 in France, over 100000 world wide, I was one of them till last September when they made me redundant, oh by the way their 2018 turnover was almost 34.5 billion ā¬
Easy itās a thread on second homes. The blessing or bind comment has covered whether 2nd homes has blocked locals and young people from buying. There is way more property than buyers and houses are not considered and investment tool so there have been daft people who paid stupid amounts making the sellers (commonly French) a tidy sum, only to be sold at a great loss now the bubble has popped.
With your stats on big employment numbers affordability canāt be a major issue.
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Hi Jeanette, I have to disagree about renovating for profit, I donāt believe you renovate in France to make a profit. My house has lost over 30% of its value since I bought in 2011. Iāve have spent as much again on it getting to where I want it. This includes me doing virtually all the work apart from the electrics. If you renovate in France for profit, youāre either very lucky or living in cloud cuckoo land. Artisans are very expensive in France compared with the UK, mainly down to the taxes and decennial insurance they carry.
I spent the money knowing this, but as its my home Iām not bothered if itās only worth a sous.
āLow income, hard up familiesā.
Exactly so, properties in poor condition, indeed, have low appeal, to people without time or resources, experience or information enough to make them liveable.
Iām thinking about how the situation might be improved, for everyone.
I havenāt spent much money on my house, if it looks beautiful now, its because of plants and trees, and a few easy changes, it has an electricity supply but no other services.
Any hard up couple in France might have attempted it. So why did they not? Why did similar people in UK not do likewise before the massive rise in prices, that made homeownership almost impossible, for ever, for millions of Brits?
No, I donāt think its because of laziness or any determination to " live off tax payers ā, a common thought, a popular view.
Its a natural āmarketā response, freedom to take part, sans control, brings opportunism, pragmatism, and thatās fine, but with basic life essentials?
That should not be " up for grabsā in any society concerned about peaceful or civilised society?
People have to have shelter. Water, clean air. Do you have confidence in current French, UK, or any āsystemā to supply those needs? Do you know how many homeless people there are in UK? Do you know what it feels like to live anywhere people are stigmatised for living in āsocial housingā?
Iām just thinking about options.
But the second home issue is a local issue issue not a national issue. The fact that France has a thriving energy/food/etc sector, is only relevant if you live where the work is. And second homers tend to choose areas where property is cheap (to them), which tends to be areas where the work isnāt. They avoid the tourist areas and the affluent suburbs because the prices there are higher.
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Michael, it probably depends more on experience than luck. No, I donāt see the property speculation scenario as you do. At present, I see many people stressed out in attempting to provide essentials, still being considered parasites, others still getting away with ādevelopers privilegesā because upgrading property, from cheap, often into āunaffordableā, benefits more than one owner or company at a time.
We seem to have come a full circle, and itās still debatable.
There is an incentive towards home-ownership, in a way. The French Govt is making available all sorts of upgrades to folk who live in below-standard properties, at no cost if their income falls below a threshold.
So, perhaps now is the time for younger members of a family to take on one of the familyās unoccupied buildings - get their own place and have financial aid towards bringing it up to scratch.
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Usually with strings attached to deter speculation. For instance, if you read the small print it often says that the grant is repayable in full if the property ceases to be your primary residence within 10 years or so of carrying out the improvements.
The political objective is to raise the standard of Franceās housing stock and reduce Franceās carbon footprint, rather than to encourage home ownership.
Anna
Around here, youngsters seeking their own homes are, indeed, taking advantage of the govt aid available. I do not know of middle-age folk doing similarly, but I see no reason why not. We have so many empty, rundown family inheritances and now is the moment many of the families have been waiting for.
Of course there will be strings to deter speculation. Makes absolute sense.
Our council-owned building land is sold really cheaply to encourage incomers or whoever to help boost the population. However, it carries a āstringā in that a dwelling must be built within a certain number of years or the land goes back to the council. That is to deter speculators from buying really cheap building land and hanging onto it maybe - whatever - and then selling it on at an inflated price .
The only thing we have not stipulated is whether Residential or Second Home.
That sounds good, Stella. Not enough, though. And is anything similar happening in UK? Just interested. I think that taking on any kind of āruinā looks impossible for people with no back up, my house is a million miles away from smart, I was desperate, and I found it, it had been empty for years, abandoned. Thereās no way it could be called a fine home, but it would take so little, and SO much less than a lifetime of social housing costs, for the govt. to support a young family to help them make it so.
Maybe anyone who hopes to buy in France, should be obliged to share renovation information with French people, interested, but without experience?
Well I did half-read a headline in the Grauniad last week that Bojo had announced his government would give young people a plot of land each to build a house on. Must admit I didnāt read the article, the whole thing sounded too far into unicorn territory to be worth taking seriously.
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Thank you people! I feel I inspired by this. Iāve been thinking so long, about how to make my house part of the community, even if I canāt do socialising myself. I want to open it, let everyone come, without ANY smart renovation. I want them to see what is lost, each time an o!d building is forgotten, neglected, that could be home.
I wonder the French look at it from a slightly different angle though, more from-the-inside-out. It sounds corny but home really is where the heart is. There are HLMs near me that whilst ugly in themselves, very 60s and boxy, have been made pretty with hanging baskets and nice garden furniture on the terraces and balconies. Itās their home, itās where they raised their kids, why would they want to swap it for a reno project. My next door but one neighbours are owner occupiers of a cute little cottage but the reason they bought was because the HLM they used to live in, was condemned. She had grown up there and sheās still nostalgic about it even though on the surface she has a much nicer āhomeā now.
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Hmmm, wonder whoās land he had in mind