Property in Languedoc ? price is falling

[daniel]

Welcome all,
I've owned a house in the Herault department of the Languedoc for a couple of years. I had intended to keep it for a few years but in recent months I have become more and more disturbed by reports that prices there are peaking and indeed falling!
I was out there in December and two agents agreed that prices cannot go up any more and a fall is due.
This is mainly due to supply and demand working against the price: demand has dropped due to UK investors (the Place in the Sun crowd) holding back due to the jitters in their own housing market, and secondly a huge increase in the supply of renovated village houses in that region of France. When I was looking two years ago there was very little good property around, which fuelled the continuing price rises.
As I still work in the UK I look on the house as an investment and cannot afford to have a depreciating asset, especially as all my money is tied up in it (no mortgage). I've had it valued and I will make modest profit on it, so I think sadly it's time to sell.
Does anyone else have any insight into property in the south of France?
Regards
Daniel

[darren]

Hi Daniel,
I live in the Aude valley a bit further south. Around this way I've yet to see any price falls, and last time I looked in any detail (November) prices were still going up, but there has definitely been a large increase in the supply of "village" houses in various states of disrepair, usually with no garden or land. Unfortunately what everyone seems to be looking for - good habitable old stone house with some land somewhere near civilization but not near a main road - is still rare and expensive.
We've met in the last couple of months a whole load of Belgians, Dutch, Americans and Brits moving over permanently though, more seems to be renting than before while they look for the dream property above! The bank manager we saw last week (opening a local account) said lots of brits still coming over, usually with some half arsed business plan they want finance for. But to me it looks like the frenzy over property from the Brits has died down to some degree.
Also there has been a increase in the number of locals buying property, there are new laws to give a certain amount of mortgage interest free under some conditions.
Are you by the cost or inland? What sort of property?
Keep in touch
Darren

[drew]

Hello Daniel,
Sounds like a nice place. Most of the people I've meet are looking for the Aude though, I believe prices are a bit cheaper down here, the Bezier area is supposed to be completely insane.
As regards someone to do showings, have you tried your neighbours, or Living France - Moving to France and owning French property ? For a private sale, you can put a classified on The Languedoc Page (peter who runs it lives in the languedoc and is a mine of useful information too, and he posts here).
Do you work in France or do you commute back to the UK?
I work remotely from here for a multinational and get paid out of the French office, it works out pretty well for me. I pop back a few times a year. It enabled me to move out here now rather than wait for retirement.
Regardless of what happens to house prices in LR - and even though I'm a firm UK bear I am still undecided about prices here as my post has indicated - the space and land I have here is pretty huge, and costs less than a 1 bed flat in the home counties where I came from, AND the mortgage rate is much lower.
Thank you
Drew