WISHING YOU A GREAT 2023

Starting with the good news, buyers from outside France, mainly from the Netherlands, Belgium and the UK, are still showing heightened interest in purchasing a home in France that will deliver a quieter life, and hence rural properties continue to remain popular. Having said that, as we enter 2023, the market is in the doldrums. French buyers are experiencing difficulty in getting credit (mortgages), and vendors are not readily open to suggestions of reducing their property sale price.
Add to this the negative news across Europe: the war between Ukraine and Russia still dominates the news headlines, inflation hits record highs in several European countries, and energy prices have gone through the roof, all of which impact the market’s ability to transact, and we have to accept that the record sales years of 2021 and 22 post Covid will not return for a while.
That doesn’t mean we have to stop dreaming, and today we announce our participation in a new and innovative co-acquisition scheme that will make it easier to enter the secondary/ vacation home market. You can read more about this in our article SOMETHING SPECIAL.

Now, something you should be aware of is the impending changes linked to energy efficiency in homes and particularly in rental properties. As a lot of our sales are rural properties, this is most likely to affect you in some way.
The French government has decided to restrict the renting-out of properties which are classified as energy inefficient (classes E, F & G). From 2025, class G will be prohibited from renting, this will be expanded to include class F from 2028, and class E from 2034.
At this stage, as an owner you are not obliged to do any work, however, you do have a good choice of government subsidies for improving the property and that even applies to owners of second/vacation homes, who may not be fiscally resident France. We can give you a lot more information about this, so please do get in contact if you would like further details.
This does not apply to short-term rentals such as seasonal renting (gîtes for example), but the government is exploring how to close this loophole in the new legislation. In our opinion, if you just rent out rooms in your house, or you have a guest house in the garden, at this point we do not think this will apply to you if the rental price includes energy usage/consumption.
But, we also think that those renovations that you have been thinking about probably need to be accelerated, particularly as there is likely to be some government assistance in financing the work.
A concluding thought: Don’t let all the negative news distract you from your dream of owning a home in this beautiful part of Europe – there’s a property out there just right for you and it’s only a matter of time, you just have to keep looking.

Talking of which, if you already own a home in France and you are thinking of selling, our latest guide SELLING YOUR HOME is rich in information and facts about how to navigate the complexity of French regulations and the myriad of diagnostic surveys that need to be in place before a sale can be agreed. This eBook is absolutely free, and you can get your copy here.

The start of a new and hopefully a promising year for us all… we wish you happiness and good fortune for 2023 and we look forward to seeing you very soon.

Be safe and well.