It's a question that gets asked frequently when you're away for the weekend or for longer. 'My house in France' is an answer that you immediately feel compelled to justify because the perception of the answer betrays the humble nature of what you actually have.
Yes, we a couple from the UK have, under the impending doom of Brexit, bought a house in France. We have a 17th century, granite walled, oak framed 2.5 bedroom farmhouse, with two outbuildings all sitting on a 1/3 of an acre of the Normandie countryside. It cost, including all taxes and fees, 42,000€ - about £38,000 or $46,000 US at the time of purchase in October 2019.
To put this in British terms a three bed house in rural Cambridgeshire is about £320,000, or another way would 1/4 of a beach hut on the Southwold seafront and you can't even sleep in one of them...
To know why we have a house in France is to know a little of our history...
My new partner Kay had settled her divorce much sooner than I had mine, as I had the extra complication of a school age child. Kay's had grown and flown and as such, Kay could buy our house out on The Fen Edge in cash. We are mortgage free, something that it still feels weird to say.
When my money (pitance?) came through, we looked at options to invest in before it got frittered.
Buy a flat/ house with a decent cash deposit to rent out involving a small mortgage was one sensible option. Guaranteed future income and a house that pays for itself, if not much more until the mortgage is paid off.
Another was buy a small house on or near the Norfolk coast as a holiday home/occasional rental, assured of the long trend of rising UK house prices and it was would be within two hours drive of our house. We saw one. Two rooms (not bedrooms- two rooms) mid terrace 3m metres wide and scarcely double the length. Offers in excess of £110k. It would provide a post retirement income and a getaway, but needed a mortgage.
This is the insight bit. We have both came from marriages where our dreams were either strangled, or the sensible default position was if not no; I'll think about it. No risks ever taken. No opportunities grabbed. No excitement. Okay, a largish 4-bed house in Cambridgeshire, 2 weeks in decent European seaside resorts once or twice a year, plus skiing in the winter is hardly a pauper's story. To me, slogging away to pay the bulk of a mortgage on a house that was more than a family of three needed, felt like treading water to stay alive until inevitably, you die not really having had an adventure out of life.
The brush strokes of Kay's story are very similar, but obviously different houses and people.
Our default position to left-field or slightly risky propositions is 'yes'. Then we worry about making it happen. The thing was, when a chance conversation ignited the interest in considering buying abroad, it did not seem like a potentially risky proposition, even though we're talking property and not just jumping on a plane at a whim for weekend somewhere odd.
Property is a considerable commitment but like anything significant, it's one that just needs research and a clear set of parametres.
Page II