It's true that most French buyers do not get a full structural survey of a house carried out before they buy, but we would advise prudence here.
This relaxed approach sits well with the easy-going French quality of life we all aspire too - but rather like marriage, commit yourself in haste, repent at leisure. If you waste your precious life savings on what turns out to be the house from hell, your dream home will become a nightmare.
Most French buyers just ask a local architect or builder to give them their opinion, but the only specialist reports cover lead paint, asbestos and depending on the region, termites. French estate agents don't push you to get a survey done because they don't want a straightforward transaction to be disrupted by a 'nitpicking' surveyor unfamilier with the local forms of construction and the French language.
But a full structural survey will let you know quite literally where you stand and enable you to budget confidently and plan your finances. Moreover, there are now many British surveyors offering their services in France and they are both familiar with local construction techniques and are bilingual. We have a list of these professionals - contact us for details.
Monday 19 February 2007
Monday 12 February 2007
Why are so many Brits moving to France?
A Bordeaux University study has thrown some light on just why it is that so many Brits are selling up in the UK and making home across the channel.
Montesquieu University's survey of 2,750 Brits who are planning to move to France in the next three years reveals that it is only in France that ex-pats with relatively modest means are able to rediscover the rural idyll that was 1950s Britain.
In an increasingly urban Britain, only the wealthy are able to access the quality of life that comes from rural living - not so in France where many villages are still depopulated from the 20th Century population shifts towards towns and cities. New-comers are positively welcomed as saviours of the community and, if they have children, the village school.
The attraction is not just that property prices are still actually related to salaries and pensions, there is also a nostalgia for old-fashioned British values and way of life. Those looking forward to "La Vie Anglaise" across the water frequently cite tight-knit communities where you can leave your door open and where children can play safely, locally farmed food, low crime levels and the joys of Sunday afternoon cricket on the village green!
Montesquieu University's survey of 2,750 Brits who are planning to move to France in the next three years reveals that it is only in France that ex-pats with relatively modest means are able to rediscover the rural idyll that was 1950s Britain.
In an increasingly urban Britain, only the wealthy are able to access the quality of life that comes from rural living - not so in France where many villages are still depopulated from the 20th Century population shifts towards towns and cities. New-comers are positively welcomed as saviours of the community and, if they have children, the village school.
The attraction is not just that property prices are still actually related to salaries and pensions, there is also a nostalgia for old-fashioned British values and way of life. Those looking forward to "La Vie Anglaise" across the water frequently cite tight-knit communities where you can leave your door open and where children can play safely, locally farmed food, low crime levels and the joys of Sunday afternoon cricket on the village green!
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