A rural re-birth?
The population drift from country to town did not occur in France in the same way as it did in her great European industrial rivals Germany and Great Britain. The town population did not outnumber the rural population until 1932 and the farming was still a major employer until after the second world war. One in four of French citizens still lives in the countryside and perhaps 20% of the working population is still employed there.
The French government have announced a package of some 80 laws designed to encourage people to move back to the countryside. These new regulations are being introduced at a time when there are real signs that many people were making the move in any case. The most recent figures available are for 1999 and they show that the countryside gained around 410,000 new inhabitants that year and that this change has been noted in something like 72 of France’s 95 departments. Le Monde has described the positive migration from city to the countryside as “no longer a minority trend but a genuine sociological phenomenon”.
Retired people have been in the van of the migration back to the countryside but it is now clear that people of all ages and social circumstances are happy to move out of the cities and back to the country. Interestingly this has not resulted in a huge increase in the numbers of commuters but reflects a genuine attempt by many to shift jobs out of the city to the small towns and villages. The places that have invested in improvements to their infrastructure, to modernise and make their environments attractive to new residents have done particularly well out of this new rural migration.
Will the rural rebirth increase competition for properties and thus prices? Perhaps, although a lot of the migration is resulting in the building of new homes – actually increasing the available housing stock. In addition, the migration is reviving the infrastructure and the businesses that support renovation projects. Buying and restoring a house could be getting easier in areas popular with new French residents and your combined taxes will help to improve services still further.
New (well old) properties coming to market?
Even a short country tour will come across great numbers of abandoned or derelict buildings. Anyone would wonder why so many are left to crumble away rather than restoring them for habitation or at least putting them on the market for a cash sum.
The current review of the “Code Napoléon” which deals with French Inheritance rules and was initiated by the Minister of Justice Mr Dominique Perben is unlikely to come up with any great changes but might well result in the sudden availability of a large number of renovation projects on the market. Currently, an heir has up to 30 years to accept or reject an inheritance and this is likely to be reduced to ten years on the advice of the notaires who have made submissions to the review. 2010 might be a good year to pick up a low cost French property in need of renovation.
Where are the bargains?
Please note that all prices quoted here are in Euros (€).
Well they are still everywhere. Our own property pages currently list several French houses available for less that €50,000 – and that is in the Dordogne – one of the most popular areas for British and French second home owners.
Clearly the low cost airlines have opened up new and convenient house owning opportunities all over France and just an hour away from London. The bargain hunters are following the routes and searching out low cost properties that can be visited in a weekend and without having to pay premium ferry fares at popular times.
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