Reply to: French property for sale websites

[OwlHoot]

... I think its ridiculous to suggest that people decide what size home to buy based on what happens to it when they are dead. Most people cant manage to live 3 months without a pay check so its preposterous to suggest they even consider what happens after their death.

I'm talking about French people with plenty of money, enough to buy a farm or something comparable in the UK, and suggesting the main reason they tend not to do that in France (unless they have only one blood heir).

[escapeUK]

So no wonder French people tend to prefer several smaller, more easily shared, properties such as town flats.

Often, with joint inheritance like that, the result is that all the heirs and their families end up occupying the same farm house, like a sort of commune. So it's hardly surprising that practically every remote village in France has several inbred mental defectives or cripples wandering about. We joke about rural people with six fingers and suchlike; but in France it is apparently a big problem.

I think its ridiculous to suggest that people decide what size home to buy based on what happens to it when they are dead. Most people cant manage to live 3 months without a pay check so its preposterous to suggest they even consider what happens after their death. Dont most older people downsize as they approach retirement anyway?

We have them here, not because of inbreeding but through leaving breeding too late. I bet there is a fair few parents on here with such children. This is through womens lib getting women to work, which meant property prices rose to need two people paying the mortgage, thus meaning it wasnt possible to have children in early 20s as always was the case before.

As a society we have made an awful lot of mistakes, mostly unintended consequences of course.

[OwlHoot]

... I imagine one reason is the horrendous taxes those crazy French socialists must levy on larger properties and land.

That must be why most French people prefer to live in shoeboxes in towns.

That's puzzled me slightly for a long time, but I think I've sussed it now - It's their mad inheritance laws.

In France, people are legally obliged to leave their property in equal shares to all their blood offspring (and presumably the same applies to foreign residents in France, something worth investigating if you are a British person with several children and thinking of buying a farmhouse in France!)

It's an old tradition, and before the Revolution meant among other things that each child of a titled person inherited a title and land of their own, leading to a proliferation of petty aristocrats freeloading off the labours of the peasants, and to inefficiency in land management and farming that persists to this day in France (hence the CAP agricultural subsidies, which are mostly for their benefit).

So these days for any French family with more than one kid, a country estate, or just a farm house with some land, spells Big Trouble as soon as one or both of the parents die. Apparently loads of country properties in France lie empty for years, decades sometimes, going to rack and ruin while the heirs squabble over who gets what. So no wonder French people tend to prefer several smaller, more easily shared, properties such as town flats.

Often, with joint inheritance like that, the result is that all the heirs and their families end up occupying the same farm house, like a sort of commune. So it's hardly surprising that practically every remote village in France has several inbred mental defectives or cripples wandering about. We joke about rural people with six fingers and suchlike; but in France it is apparently a big problem.

And all because of their daft inheritance laws, which on the face of it sound so fair and equitable - It's a good example of how, counterintuitively, a reasonable sounding system can actually have such malign results.

In England and Wales we've traditionally had the Norman system of primogeniture, where the eldest (and usually male) heir inherited the lot. This prevented estates from being atomised with a resulting surfeit of small landowners to oppress the peasantry. It also meant younger siblings had to make their own way in life, and thus encouraged enterprise.

[escapeUK]

Its funny how a lot of these French properties remind me very strongly of Call of Duty.

[suityou01]

Your neighbours are MF and sas.

Fook that

[adubya]

Your neighbours are MF and sas.

[suityou01]

Some of these properties in the south of France are just nuts. 8 bed villas for 10k

And the rental on these types of property is 2k a week during peak

So that's quite an ROI

What's the catch I wonder

[Old Hack]

France Property Shop is a cracking little ipad app we used to find our house.

It is very good.

[OwlHoot]

A question I regularly ask myself.

In fact I'm suprised so few people seem to do it, or maybe I just don't know any who do...

I imagine one reason is the horrendous taxes those crazy French socialists must levy on larger properties and land.

That must be why most French people prefer to live in shoeboxes in towns.

Also, France is quite a large place, and some of these remote villages in places like Brittany are over a hundred miles from an airport or ferry port.

[Basil Fawlty]

Assuming at least some of these places have a decent broadband connection, what the hell am I doing here??

A question I regularly ask myself.

In fact I'm suprised so few people seem to do it, or maybe I just don't know any who do...

[OwlHoot]

The plan shows Rue de l'Etang

This one's a possibility?

Rue de l'Étang, 35630, Ille-et-Vilaine, Bretagne, France - Google Maps

Hmm, well there is a large lake there; but it's much further than the advert says (40 miles instead of 10) from Josselin & Ploermel, and so much closer to St Malo one wonders why that wasn't mentioned.

It's a bit suspicious the ad is so evasive and possibly misleading about the location, unless the place is currently unoccupied and they don't want to go giving burglars or would-be squatters clues to its whereabouts.

[Gruffalo]

Personally I'd like somewhere down towards Bezier in the South for the weather/beaches/access to Andorra for a bit of skiing... TGV should get you there in about eight hours I think, or cheapo Ryanair flights if you can stand it.

Exactly where my mum's place is. Perpignan (St Cyprien to be precise).

St Cyp is just over an hour from Girona airport with almost daily flights all year. Also flights to Perpignan, Beziers, Carcassonne.

The Catalan region is a really lovely place, with cracking quiet beaches and plenty of space.

[Moscow Mule]

Tried this?

Find Overseas Property For Sale

[mudskipper]

Wow - That's a lot of property for the money, and not too far from St Malo, which as Acme Thunderer mentioned has an overnight car ferry to Pompey.

From clues in the description, I suspect it is exactly here.

But one of the photos shows a big open tarmac area which is a continuation of the road, and I suspect that may be a public right of way (c.f. the triangle on the satellite image) which if so would be a bit of a downer for privacy or extending the garden if required. Basically, the property seems a bit exposed between two converging roads, one of which looks quite a main road.

The plan shows Rue de l'Etang

This one's a possibility?

Rue de l'Étang, 35630, Ille-et-Vilaine, Bretagne, France - Google Maps

[OwlHoot]

Brittany Bargain. 6 Bed. 2 Bath with Superb 4 Car Detached Garage/Workshop. | eBay Looks nice.

Wow - That's a lot of property for the money, and not too far from St Malo, which as Acme Thunderer mentioned has an overnight car ferry to Pompey.

From clues in the description, I suspect it is exactly here.

But one of the photos shows a big open tarmac area which is a continuation of the road, and I suspect that may be a public right of way (c.f. the triangle on the satellite image) which if so would be a bit of a downer for privacy or extending the garden if required. Basically, the property seems a bit exposed between two converging roads, one of which looks quite a main road.