Great article in the Sunday Times about the French property market and how the election of president Macron has brought a lot of optimism. The feature includes comments from HH director Tim Swannie including:
According to Tim Swannie of Home Hunts, good places further south where cost-conscious Brits might find value include Grasse, in Provence, and Béziers and Montpellier, further west along the Med in the Languedoc, which offer a taste of the Riviera lifestyle without the accompanying price tag.
But for all the optimism that Macron has brought, the biggest factor for anyone buying property abroad is the exchange rate, and the pound is still a long way below its pre-referendum level. If you bought a €250,000 house on the day before the EU referendum last year, it would have set you back £193,000. Today you’d have to find more than £222,000, according to Moneycorp. One tactic that buyers are using is to borrow in euros to make a purchase, and wait until the pound rises to pay off the loan.
“For sellers, it’s all about getting the price right. Anything that comes on the market at the right price sells quickly,” Swannie says. “We’ve actually had German and Scandinavian buyers asking for British-owned houses. It’s because the pound is low and they think they will be more willing to accept a deal.”
