Why do house prices vary enormously?
As we are looking to buy, it is really difficult to gauge a fair price. I understand the obvious, needing work and more isolated locations will be cheaper. However the price doesn’t seem to be a guide to the size and condition. Prices can easily be £100k difference. Price reductions are also quite large. Any advice on how to know if properties are priced well? And how much reduction to offer? Thanks
There is no easy formula. The only way is to look at a range of properties in a particular area and make your own comparisons. The value of any property is the price that the buyer is prepared to pay for it. Whether the seller agrees is a different matter.
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Yes , quite different to uk pricing which may vary by about £20k and offers are often within this range too. Seems a cheeky offer will be a starting point!
Difficult one…locally when agents from the towns are asked to price a house for sale they are way above what anyone here would consider paying. For instance an agent estimated a house nearby at 88,000 euros, of course the seller was pleased by this figure. We all said it wouldn’t sell at that, even her own brother ! The result, house on the market for 6 years until she reduced it to 65, 000 (still too high) it sold eventually for 44, 000 euros!
A Belgium friend’s maison secondaire was estimated at 90,000 euros (no way) on our advice she asked the notaire to value it, a more realistic price of 50,000 euros.
We all want as much as we can when we sell, but some people really do try it on, so as David has said if you have properties to look at in a certain area then do lots of research and prepare an offer.
When I was looking for a house I went to the notaires, explained what I needed and my price range, they printed me list of properties, including locations, thus saving me having to make appts to view, after all if the outside and location isn’t right there is no need to take it further!
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I didn’t realise Notaires priced differently, but it makes sense they will be more accurately priced. Are Notaire property details online?
I think we may be talking about Sales which are offered through the Notaires (often when someone dies)… rather than through the Estate Agents… 
I think part of the difference is also that the french housing market is different from the UK one. It is a lot more sluggish, and doesn’t have the same turnover. People don’t expect things to sell quickly, so it is slow to dawn on them that the price is wrong.
There’s also no equivalent of Rightmove or Zoopla that I’ve ever come across. So those starting to sell a property have no easy way to look at similar ones in same area to get a feel for the right price to offer it at. So they just do what notaire or estate agent suggests (lots of people sell through notaires, not just the estates of dead people).
But as others have said you can work out rough guidelines for the area you are interested in. There should be a narrow’ish range of prices per square metre for houses that are unrenovated, renovated or new. Same with the external area. So if something that you are interested in is way out of that price per square metre then start asking questions!
There is also info online, like these
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Thanks Jane will check out those links. Will also call to Notaires to see what’s on offer. Seems strange no rightmove or similar in France, where nearly all properties get listed in uk.
My notaire (department 36) has a web site with properties for sale.
There are also on line property services, I think there may be details somewhere on this site.
I have put a link here just to give an example of a property site I recently discovered. I have no tie up or personal experience of them, its just for information…
http://www.frenchpropertylinks.com/frenchpropertyextradetails.asp?property=U395E36
Oops, forgot to put my notaires site for you to see what I mean …
Thanks Ann, that’s great! Will try to find Notaires sites now for the area we’re looking at. I had thought they may not be online and only found by going in person. Thank goodness for the Internet! Had previously come across French Property Links but forgotten about it somehow 
Agents used to value property in living condition at €1200 psm of living space. A pool added €10,000 regardless of how much it cost to put in. A barn added about €10,000 too. Agricultural land is €10,000 per hectare.
A house in good condition with some tasteful touches could be €1500 psm and a house with say Oak doors, brass fittings , underfloor heating , large fitted kitchen, all the bells and whistles, €2,000 psm.
House values have dropped here and supply still outstrips demand. It is still a buyers market.
Paul - why do you keep replying to really old posts - I have to keep ‘muting’ them, quite annoying 
Apologies, It’s quite annoying when they pop up as an unread post. Still getting used to the site and often forget to look at the dates of postings. Maybe something admin could do about that. Archive posts that haven’t been updated for a period, but still have them available on a search.
Not really Paul - the date of the last post is clearly shown.