Is anyone selling their house in France?

Hi. We’re looking to move to France and interested in buying a house from any expats.

TIA

Why do you want to buy from an immigrant? Seems an odd criteria for house purchase rather than location, size, price etc.

Not odd at all. We don’t particularly like the traditional French internal style, decoration etc. So it’s possible that an English expat may have done up the internals in the English style.

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That explains it, and sounds sensible. But still a timetable, location and size of house might help. We “may” be selling soon but it is not a mainstream property so without any idea of what you are looking for is prob not worth following up.

Welcome to SF!

Have a nose around on Bien’Ici and Se Loger as well as immobilier websites, that’s what I am doing - you can set lots of search criteria such as location, price(!) floor space, etc - sadly no option for “no brown wood ceilings or floral wallpaper”, but there are almost always photos. :smiley:

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I think there is some wisdom in this.

A decade ago when we were first looking for a maison secondaire, requiring little or no refurbishment beyond a coat of paint, after viewing 104 properties, I could definitely categorise ownership styles. When looking for a full time abode, we were more willing to overlook minor redecoration needs in favour of location and good ‘bones’.

Perhaps the English carry a style and standard they themselves do not generally realise but we certainly know it when we see it.

Look on LeBonCoin at houses for sale, nearly always show photos of the inside rooms and exterior. However, be minded that brit owned properties can hide a multitude of non conforming installations in the electricity and water area plus other nasties they want to pass off. Whatever you look at buying, you will have a copy of the mandatory diagnostics of the property covering everything from drainage to insulation. There were a lot of B.Ferries builders here in France in the 90’s doing absolute horrendous renovations on properties that are not to the regulations.

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Time ? This year. Location …geographic …open minded. Not village or town location but close by, if that makes sense. Size - open minded.

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I would fully agree with that! Our lovely (French) neighbours bought a house 2 years ago from some Brits because it was fully “done” and would save them extensive renovations on their old property. It looked lovely, but under the covers it was appalling - they had to strip it back to the main structure, replace rotten beams etc etc and are just now finally moving in.

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Thank you for the welcome.

Our reason for asking specifically expats is that although we love most aspects of France and the French, we are not that enamoured of the typical internals/decor/style of a French house. If an expat has bought a property to renovate then there is a strong chance that the style etc is more ‘English’ for want of a better word.

An excellent point and one that caught out a friend who moved to France.

You may want to try Leggetts, who often have Brits selling through them.

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Sorry - I forgot to say “Welcome to Survive France”! I hope you’ll find some useful information here.

I’m just curious what you have against the decor in the rest of the UK. :wink:

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Otherwise what about a new build? You can start from scratch then and do your own thing. I sold up three years ago and had this new bungalow built which meant I had a blank canvas without all the re-decorating, renovation and worry it did not conform plus its very eco with airpump heating for water, reversible clim for heating and cooling and built high up so the floors never get cold. Remember energy prices are increasing all the time so an old house may cost you a lot more to heat and also the installations for heating maybe old and very expensive torun.

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Too old to be thinking about all the hassle involved in that one !

Thank you for the suggestion.

EDIT: Leggett’s are fantastic ! Some perfect properties there.

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Haggle on price tho’ as they are generally at the very top of the price per m2 for any specific area. Some that the advertise seem ridiculously overpriced to me.

Beauvillages often have some interesting properties too

And the other anglophone one is this

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Hey :grinning:

Someone in a neighbouring village has a villa for sale 450,000 euros. 3 beds, 2 bath, double garage.

They built it using local tradespeople, but the layout is “English” according to French friends.

It’s 100% habitable but not quite finished. A bit of painting and flooring to be completed.

It’s in Le Béarn region (64).

I’ll see if I can find the link if this sort of thing interests you.

Thank you. That’s very kind of you.