For those over here (UK)... having a look over there (Brittany & Normandy)... Take your marks!

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I'm sure most parties out there, interested in picking up a second property etc., know all about the state of economies and stuff and why therefore you can pick up extreme bargains in Northern France (other parts of France are available). But, just in case...we are at the confluence of some pretty important triggers right now. The UK economy is taking a few people by surprise and really looking up. Those at the top of government will say that they knew it would work this way - to the disbelief and annoyance of those in opposition. It makes the General Election harder to win when unemployment goes down and exports go up and the currency is performing well on the world stage. Things get even better when those across the water are experiencing their worst performance figures, biggest unemployment and their worst currency performance (against sterling) for more than a decade... You also have to set this off against the downward trend of property prices and only the slow likelihood of a recovery and you have the best reason to buy a property in France or Spain. So why Brittany or Normandy then? Well, for a start...for those in the UK it's a very short hop to the nearest foreign shore... the closest proper 'abroad'. There's no 8 hour drive to the Dordogne or twelve stretch to Northern Spain. You're still close enough to the UK in Brittany and Normandy to get back to see grandkids and the family can visit you without much hassle. The property prices in Northwest France have always been very attractive and getting better for the reasons above. Old houses of all architectural types abound especially farmhouses, corps de ferme, cottages... anything that would have been associated with agriculture. Brittany is still very much a bread basket for France leading the way in fishing, shellfish, pork production, raising vegetables... Oh yeh, and potato chips... Brett's factory is on the road to Pontivy! Its scent pervades the air and you can smell it before you see it! So, the agricultural revolution threw up loads of housing stock which because of unfavourable inheritance laws were often left to languish toward disuse... leaving a door open for those lucky enough to spot the bargains which needed to be saved from ruin... Our own house is typical in that regard... owned as it was by seven siblings who couldn't for years make up their collective minds to sell or to keep.

Whether you're downsizing after the kids have left home and are buying yourself that pied a'terre you've always promised yourself for your retirement OR are working and maybe, like us, by dint of the world wide web and other good things, you can work anywhere... then I'm saying Brittany and/or Normandy are ideal... In my book they don't even feel... well...French. My neighbour, when I first encountered him, on the 'three tractors a day lane' that passes our house... "What do you think about an English family buying the house next door to you (there are just the two houses in our hamlet)... He said... "Well it could be worse... you could be French!" This stems from the strong Breton feeling that they would actually be better off governing themselves. In fact my take on it is that over the years the 'ownership' of Brittany has passed from France to Britain, Britain to France and back again several times and there is a bond stronger between the Bretons and the British than there is between the Bretons and the French. My own grasp of the French language is not actually such that my neighbour and I can have fireside chats about the why and the wherefore of this... but a nod's as good as a wink.

The big news of course is... The Sterling to Euro rate is (as of Jan 27th) the best that it's been since 2003 and, with the Euroland economies not performing particularly well, property values are, at the moment, stagnant and many prices have been dropped already and will no doubt fall further in the months to come. Hopefully, for a wile at least, the exchange rate will remain in favour of those buying in France...

Without being hysterical about it... Buy... buy... BUY...BUY!

 Check out the Currency Exchange Specialists we work with... Currency Rates...



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