Hi Peter… what is his reasoning for suggesting renting over buying ??? There are loads of properties for sale… at ever-falling prices… so an ideal time to be a Buyer ???
Because there may be stringent revenue etc requirements attached to non-EU citizens desiring residence here post brexit, rather like the conditions being imposed on people in the UK in the same situation.
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One might take the view that, as the £ is likely to fall significantly against the € buying French property at the moment is not a bad investment.
Or would be were it not for the very large estate agent fees in France and the fact that you’d have to buy something with a fighting chance of appealing to a French buyer.
Unlike the UK… I am not inclined to think of property in France as an “investment”…I know folk who have thought otherwise and they have come unstuck … 
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Indeed. Of course this is multifactorial
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Historically French property prices have been stable up to the early 2000’s, then they shot up to 2007/2008, became much more volatile but on average were falling back and, the last time I looked seemed finally to be settling down a bit but plenty of opportunity to lose money when re-selling.
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French estate agent and Notaire’s fees are very high, so you wind up needing to realise a gain in the property value of around 10% just to break even.
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Brits (and other nationalities, I suspect) do not always research the local market well enough and pay over the odds.
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We also tend to buy property that the French themselves are not that interested in (all those stone cottages in need of restoration and situated in tiny rural hamlets) limiting the resale market.
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Brits selling up are quite often doing so because they want/need to come back to the UK so they need a quick sale which tends not to go along with realising a good price.
But, as it is entirely possible the £ will devalue a further 20-30% in the event of a “no deal” Brexit and Euro based investment, even property, could be a good bet if bought now and sold after March next year.
IANAFA (I am not a financial advisor, investments are at your risk etc).
I think that the idea that the French don’t want stone houses in rural villages is really a bit of a myth. There are five houses in my hamlet and since I bought mine the other four have all changed hands; they’ve all been bought and renovated by French people who wanted stone houses in a quiet setting.
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Fair enough but France is not unusual in that it is has seen significant rural depopulation over the past few decades which has left a lot of vacant properties. Thankfully it seems that there might be a reversal in some areas (the population of the village where we have a house has been rising steadily since 1975, for instance).
It’s horses for courses amongst the French people I know, friends and family, there are those who want to live in towns, those who prefer the country, those who want old characterful houses, those who want modern efficient ones, those who want a flat, those who need a garden. Strangely, in my experience the French act very like the British and the Germans come to that.
In my rural area (not my hamlet) there has been a big influx of locals who moved away but have now come back, some for the quality of life for their children others for retirement.
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Villages round here have seen rising populations, due to the construction of new Lotissements, but the old houses are pretty well all occupied too.
Dear Vero, It was a joke! How can I be happy with Brexit? I lost my life and at the same time i need to stay in the UK because
my son is English! I thought that this topic was just funny! Questions: How to support Brexit? Answer: By getting our money out of the country. English joke, I know but I lived here for 18 years.
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Morning, how did you lose your life?
I think something got lost in translation 
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As it stands today, I could lose my house, my healthcare and my pension because the UK government seems unable to do anything but ‘flounce out and blame the EU’.
Like every divorce there are always two sides to the story. The EU are hardly blameless.
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They are not - in particular their intransigence on freedom of movement with Cameron played a significant part in the run up to the referendum.
FoM was fine when the EU was a 6 or 9 nation nation club with similar economies. When it was a 28 nation club with several poorer nations it seems obvious that you are going to get unbalanced migration - which hurts the host as well as the source nation. To be fair there were some time-limited restrictions on migration available.
That said it was Blair’s goof, based on flawed advice, that meant the UK did not impose restrictions when it could.
The result is the mess that we are in now.
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This is a very good point that often seems forgotten, Cameron went to EU with hope of bringing back a positive message but was not offered an olive branch - EU could have helped significantly the referendum outcome. I would hope lessons have been learned.
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The referendum was about Cameron trying to keep himself in No.10.
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What on earth has that to do with the UK’s refusal to make any arrangements for UK citizens who quite legitimately went to live in the sun with guaranteed rights to residence, healthcare and pension payments. Why must I suffer for your political beliefs. This has nothing to do with the EU. The UK government has in its power to continue to pay for healthcare and pensions so stop using the EU for the UK’s refusal to honour its obligations.
Richard… has the UK said it will no longer pay Pensions to UK folk living abroad… after Brexit ??
Don’t think so but I think that there was some scaremongering about UK pensions having to be paid into UK bank accounts.