DordogneDirect.com Dordogne property sales, holiday rentals
Title
Dordogne property sales, holiday rentals and B&B. Lots of images and information about the Region
Description
This is the section where we are hoping for stories, comments and questions about living here in this beautiful region of rural France. It can also be a forum of questions and answers. Any tips or advice will be really valuable. More importantly let us read comments and stories about your experiences while living here. Are you really living the dream? Has it turned out to be a nightmare? BIG question everybody asks us "would you want to go back?" Tell us the ups and the downs, your problems with the language, your faux pas, and of course your wonderful experiences. Have you had problems with neighbours? How about bureaucracy, is it really worse than back home? Which rather leads to the other popular question does it now feel that you are at home?
We feel that this region of France in particular welcomes newcomers who really want to embrace the local way of life. Do you agree or disagree? What makes you mad about your fellow countrymen and women who live here? I see red every time I hear the comment, " France would be wonderful if it wasn't for the French" !! We choose to live here because of the warmth and humour and general attitude of the majority of the local French people.The rest is a bonus. We have of course had our problems..... rotten apples in every barrel, but we could not have survived without the general goodwill of most of the French people encountered along the way.
The French are getting ready to repel the British invasion !!
It seems that it is now official! France has finally overtaken Spain as the top EU destination for British Ex pats. The Connexion, a newspaper for English speakers in France, reports that, "culture, climate and community are the key factors". I would add that the medical care here is superb.
It would be an exaggeration to say that time has stood still here in the Dordogne but I have been here for 20 years now and it certainly feels as if it has. One change is that there is a noticeable scarcity of old ruined houses for sale in the villages and hamlets. I am constantly bemused to see renovation projects on property which would latterly have been classed as too expensive if they gave it to you. I know how much it costs to restore a building, and that was doing most of the labour ourselves, so I am constantly intrigued by the money lavished on broken down ruins. I have seen property where the front door opens directly onto the side of the road with little or no garden being snatched up by an eager buyer. The rationale, ' that it only costs as much as a decent car' completely ignores the fact that the cost of renovation here in France, using artisans, will cost a minimum of 1200 euros m². The property valuations on renovated habitable property does still not appear to reflect this. I am rather relieved that there is no longer much character property in need of renovation left because quite frankly the holiday rental market will only stand so much supply. I am convinced that the real bargains are the houses which have already been renovated, many people have spent far more money on their properties than they will recuperate on a sale at today's valuations. The benefit to the buyers is that the sellers have suffered the pain of living in chaos, often for years, or rushing backwards and forwards to France to organise the work with recalcitrant artisans. The problem with the French artisans is that they cannot bring themselves to refuse work, hence they cannot cope with their work load and have an unnerving habit of going off for lunch and not coming back for weeks on end. When they are on site they are great but how to keep them on site is extremely challenging even when you live here. When you are not living here you are quite likely to arrive for your break in France to find that the old bathroom has been dismantled along with all of the plumbing and your plumber seems to be blissfully unsympathetic to your predicament. You know you have lost control when, while you are begging him on you hands and knees to at least connect some water, his mobile constantly interrupts your flow, excuse the pun, as his other irate customers ring to scream abuse at him so loudly you can actually hear them at the other end of the phone. Because I speak French I have often been called upon in the past to help a friend translate with the artisans, or to try to find one. I will not do it any more because it is simply too stressful. When you buy a renovated house you can enjoy it from day one. There will always be something left for you to do to stamp your mark, but you can take your time, you can immediately advertise your house as a holiday rental property if you purchased it with that aim in mind. The pool, where applicable, is already in situ; no sleepless nights when you have taken bookings and the deadline for the construction of it has come and gone. If you are buying for your personal holidays you just dump your suitcases, grab a glass of wine and chill out. It is also worth considering whether you really want 12 hectares of land. The local farmer does not fall over himself to maintain your land for you, or to graze his livestock on it. Even a hectare can be daunting here in the Dordogne, this is a lush verdant area of France and I swear you can actually see the grass grow as you watch.
