I can understand your feeling how you do, Bill and admire your concerns. My own view is that some of our childrem might have a very strong sense of responsibility and ‘duty’ to care for an ailing parent, whatever one felt or even wanted. Others might not, for whatever reason, or it might be completely outside their capability.
How one deals with this is a personal issue. One can utterly refuse their attention, which can mean a disagreeable fuss initially. Our recent sharing about walking into the wilderness comes to mind. You still have your boat?
I often read in the local paper of very old persons who ‘go missing’ and are never found…
The property market in Brittany is certainly buoyant at the moment. As ever location is important. Houses sell near commerce, employment and lines of communication whatever their type. A Brit’s dream of splendid isolation in the countryside is not what the majority of buyers need. They need to work, produce and survive. Another factor to be born in mlnd is that about 70% of house sales in France are up to 150k (FNAIM). Above that level and you are appealing to an increasingly small proportion of buyers.
I’m mulling it over too. We bought this house knowing we would have to move again, so I’m now wondering about getting that next step house now and doing it up while we still can. Meanwhile using it as holiday home, rental property etc etc.
I remember the story of how, the Eskimos put the elderly, out on the ice for the bears, when the old folks teeth were getting dodgey, ‘palliative care’ ?
No don’t have the boat Pete, never interested in pottering about, if distance cruising/voyaging/living aboard is ‘out’, I’m not interested.
I’m sure that you are right but if I search on www.ouestfrance-immo.com for houses and apartments within 30km of Vannes I get 296 listings under 150k€ and 805 listings above that figure - just looking at apartments only (which I would expect to be at the cheaper end of the market) it is 291 vs 409.
Here is the link to a recent article in Les Echos giving the tables of 2nd hand property prices in the top 10 French cities and the averages for the top 50 towns and the countryside in 2017:
The Paris market continues to rise although prices in Lyon and Nantes are climbing faster whilst rural houses have only climbed by 0,8% this year and have dropped by over 9% in 10 years.
@ Paul Flinders…………I am sure that your findings are accurate Paul but you are looking at the so called ‘Golden Triangle’ around the Golf de Morbihan. If you do the same exercise within a more moderate 10kms of Carhaix Plouguer you will find about 310 below vs 140 above………68%. Also we have to bear in mind that Brittany ranks 6th out of 22 departments in terms of GDP production and number 1 in the OECD ranking of departments by ‘Quality of Life’. Given those details it is easier to believe that across the nation as a whole the FNAIM statistic of 70% of house sales being under 150k is roughly accurate.
Your claims are worthless without giving the whole picture. Perhaps 70% of sales are for properties under €150000 but what percentage of the total housing market do these properties represent? In my area I would guess a far greater proportion of the local housing fits into that price range. If 20% of the housing stock is worth over €150000 yet that represents 25% of total sales that gives a completely different picture.
Your comment was that by listing over 150k€ one would be cutting off much interest (“you are appealing to an increasingly small proportion of buyers”). I don’t think is is as simple as that, nor that you can put a blanket figure on it.
To sell above 150k (or some other arbitary cut-off) you need a property which is worth that much, in a location people wish to buy and with a decent market in higher value properties. I was hoping to show that was true for at least some areas so not generally the case that above 150k was “too much”. I would have given a figure for listings in the Morbihan as a whole but the search insisted I pick a commune so I agree that I might not have picked a totally representative patch but I could make the same point regarding a 10km search around Carhaix
Of the general picture:
If you look at the median house prices across France only Poitiers, Châteauroux and Limoges show medians below 150k€, though Troyes is close at 152k€ - so, on that specific point there are plenty of areas where 50% of property sales are above 150k
Also the Notaires de France seem to support the view that older property prices are rising presumably because demand is rising - this seems to suggest that David’s observation is correct.
That said the data for average prices confuses the picture but even then 42 of the 86 départements listed on the French Property summary show averages above 150k.
So, you might be right that 150k is the average price across France. I can’t find a figure for the whole of France but that might not be all that useful in the debate - as ever location is supremely important and there is a good bit of regional variation across the country.
I don’t think it is as simple as property above 150k will be difficult to sell - apologies if that isn’t what you were trying to say (though if not what was your point?)
They are not ‘my claims’. If you will please read my first posting again you will see that I simply stated " about 70% of house sales in France are up to 150K. (Federation Nationale Immobilier de France)."
If you dispute their figures perhaps take it up with them;
Once again I simply offered a piece of data I had read from FNAIM which said that about 70% of house sales were up to 150K. I should have said ‘home’ sales to include apartments. This is simply indicative that the majority of people buying a home here have a purchase ceiling of 150k. I did not comment directly upon property values and certainly did not make any statement regarding what percentage of the housing market these properties represent.
A basic analysis of the asking prices of properties for sale in Vannes and Carhaix will of course show very different median values but neither finding deflects from FNAIM’s data as far as I can see.
Do you have the link - I had a look but can’t find that claim on their website.
It’s not so important - as I said I am quite prepared to believe it, but there is other data to suggest that it is not the complete picture.
I don’t think you can draw that conclusion.
Actually re-reading your 1st post in this thread I don’t think you said much I would necessarily disagree with. Yes the Breton market is positive currently, yes the French will probably have less of a preference for stone cottages in tiny hamlets (but the data suggest even those are becoming more popular), yes more expensive houses will have a smaller audience.
The only thing, really, is I don’t think you can put an arbitrary cut off of 150k and claim that you will exclude most buyers at that level, whatever the area of France. I’m still reading your posts that way.
I was reporting something that I read. If, repeat if, the figures are correct that 70% of property sales in France are up to 150k that would indicate to me that people can either only afford to fork out this much or choose to fork out only this much. To that extent you are correct Paul that my statement that the majority of people buying a home here have a purchase ceiling of 150k is not necessarily factual. However I did say it was ‘indicative’ and I did not say that it was a fact.
