In this newsletter

2023 winter

WINTER 2023 NEWSLETTER image-1

WINTER 2023 NEWSLETTER

We are here already, the closing few weeks of the year! Welcome to our Winter newsletter.
In this edition, we meet a Dutch author whose childhood memories of the region have shaped her life and her creative talent, and she shares something special with us… you’ll need your apron!
We continue our meanderings across Burgundy and return to the Morvan Natural Park, now home to one of our own Managers.
We also present you something quite special. Budding lords of the manor, you’ll want to see this!
As always, we focus on life in the region with a sprinkling of suggestions throughout of places to visit and eat.
And we have some tips for those who think the time is right for a change… Winter may not be a good time to sell, but it’s definitely a good time to prepare, and we have some suggestions.
If that all sounds like an interesting read, you’ll find it here in this edition of FOR YOU…
WINTER NEWSLETTER FOR YOU
 As we race towards the end of the year, there are some optimistic signs for the early months of 2024!
The banks are slowly returning to a normal pace of delivering loans, and to be fair, buyers are also getting used to paying higher interest rates to what they have become accustomed to over a good number of years.
We expect to see a stabilization of interest rates during Spring 2024 now that inflation appears to have peaked, and the European Central Bank (ECB) will back away from increasing the main index.
All the ‘bad news’ we have experienced during the last 12 months has had a consequential impact on the property market and there have been corrections in house pricing. In the larger cities this has been a reduction of between 10% to 15% of the sale price, whereas in rural areas, where we mostly work, the reduction has been less.
Having said that, rural property volumes have fallen well short of expectation and demand. As a result, a well-priced rural home coming into the market is likely to sell fast. This is good news for vendors but more difficult for buyers to handle as purchase decisions must be made quickly.
However, it’s a two-way street. When a vendor refuses to reduce his price expectation to what the market realistically expects, the property is likely to ‘sour’ quickly (certainly within three months), which then makes the sale twice as hard, even unlikely without a noticeable reduction.
The role of the agence immobilier is to advise the vendor on market conditions and what they can expect as a purchase price – as professionals we are close to what is happening both to the economy and its negative or positive impact on the property sales market. Vendors take a big risk in ignoring such advice. To assist those selling their home, we have produced a useful E-book with all the things a vendor has to consider and do if they want to sell, and unfortunately in France, the list is long. You can get your free copy here: https://france4u.eu/vendors-contact.html
We very much hope you enjoy the content of this end-of-year newsletter, and we look forward to assisting you with either the sale of your French home or the start of living your dream of owning a house in France. We are here to provide you with a professional service, just as we have done for over 20 years.
Until we meet… We wish you a happy festive season.  Be well and be safe.