Relocating to Languedoc - Trade up your home?

Back in 2002, when there were 1.45 euros to a pound sterling and French property could be picked up for peanuts, Brits thought they had died and gone to heaven.

London’s French Property News Show had queues that went round the block, and estate agents couldn’t print out particulars fast enough, such were the numbers of Brits wanting to buy a French home.

Low-cost flights to the Languedoc - and many other parts of France - made the country ultra-accessible. Those who sold up in the UK and bought property in Languedoc found we could trade up to bigger and better homes.

The financial and economic crisis that marked 2008, a dramatic drop in UK property values and an exchange rate that puts euros and sterling pretty much at parity has thrown a shadow over this formerly pretty picture.

THE BOTTOM LINE

If you are lucky enough to own a UK property AND be able to find a buyer for it, at a good price, then the money you make on the deal will still buy you a French home. It just won’t buy you as much bricks and mortar as it did back in 2002. C’est la vie.

However, online research shows that for the price of a pokey two-bed flat in London’s zone 3, you can bag a larger, three bed village house surrounded by vines in the Languedoc (check Languedoc property prices here.

There’s no use crying over spilt milk (or lousy currency exchange rates). If you have a French property fantasy, quit dreaming and get on with it. Life is for living, after all. For more information about how to buy Languedoc property, visit our Languedoc Property Advice section.

For the latest Languedoc property news, click here.

For the essential low-down on Languedoc property, buy our French Property Insider’s Guide e-book here.