French Invasion - 21 January 2008

Posted by Paul Collins 3 comments

I have just spent the afternoon at what will likely be the biggest and busiest French property exhibition of the year. Having spent time at these events in the past few years, I have come to know how most of the businesses at the event are developing, just from the attitude of the staff on the stands.

Often, when a market is in decline, you are confronted on all sides by overly-cheerful salespeople extolling the virtues of the country/region/development/2-bed apartment that they have you pegged for from the outset. Sometimes, you will see people who are selling what is truly the Next Big Thing, but aren’t yet quite sure themselves how big or exciting the final result will be. These are the people who have an air of childish anticipation to them, who can’t sit still or stop talking about their development without smiling.

France, logically, has been one of the most important overseas property markets for the UK buyer for many, many years now, and yet it remains something of an anomaly. Agents are small, regional and somewhat inward-looking – many have no desire to expand their business significantly. Technology is also slightly behind the times. On a trip to the south-west of the country only three years ago, I found myself ushered into the office of an agent who was the busiest in the town, and shown their new masterpiece of communication, the fax.

At this weekend’s exhibition, without fail, the agents and developers I spoke to were genuinely excited about the prospects for France for the year ahead. France is, it seems, flavour of the month once again. While some people will be surprised by this assertion, I am only surprised that the popularity of France ever waned in the face of the new markets of the former Communist states.

At this point I must declare something of a vested interest. I am something of a latent Francophile, having studied French at university and lived in the country for some three years. At the same time, I have no property interests in France, so my impartiality is somewhat preserved.

Even taking the emotional side of buying a property overseas away, France makes sense as an overseas property destination in so many ways. It is easy and quick to get to, the range of property styles and conditions of repair are wider than in virtually any other market out there, and if you look around and seek out the right areas, there are still properties to be found for very low prices in an established market. On top of this, the climate in much of the country is an improvement on the UK, you can ski and sunbathe on the same day, and for the investors out there, capital growth in some regions is double-digit, and has been so for the past five years.

So as far as I am concerned, vive la France. Welcome back Marianne.

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