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Planning Retirement Online


Buying a house in France (Maybe) 

by Helen Franks

 

Helen Franks comes to a decision - of sorts 

I now know how long it takes by train to almost anywhere in France, and anywhere we fancy involves a journey of at least six hours, whether central, south west or south. Not something to consider for the weekend, then.  

We thought about renting a villa in southern France to see how we like it. It’s possible to rent for weeks or months, and out of season is a good time to try. But those six hours minimum are a turn-off. Flying can knock another hour off the journey, but the thought of hanging around at airports, at the mercy of cancellations, is not inviting either. 

 

Our most feeble of compromises is to rent a villa nearish Avignon for a fortnight next August with the children and grandchildren. Maybe we’ll see something and fall in love with it against our better judgement. 

Meanwhile, I was relieved to receive the following from Rosemary Martin, who sets and updates the laterlife site. Rosemary, too, has been dithering and now has pulled back from the brink. Here are her thoughts on buying abroad: 

My husband is a builder and over the years we have bought and sold many properties that had potential for extending or renovating. We were seduced by the cheap prices of property in Europe, and amazed to see that in many areas house prices were up to 75% cheaper than the UK.

With interest rates extremely low and giving a poor return, we considered investing our capital in property abroad, both for our own holiday use and for renting to others, as we could command up to £1000 per week in rental in certain locations....

BUT…

after sleeping on the idea we agreed that we wouldn`t go ahead with our plan for the following reasons/excuses:

·        We are not great holiday fans. We like to take off for a few days when the mood takes us and work allows

·        We like seeing different places and really prefer the wilder, unpopulated parts of the UK

·        Staff would have to be involved for domestic duties - and we don`t want the added responsibility

·        Any business/property needs constant attention which it wouldn’t get, being a long way away

·        We would not wish to charge rent to friends/family, therefore the accommodation could easily become a free holiday spot for all and sundry

·        We enjoy our lifestyle in our own home and the UK too much to leave it for more than a week

·        We are not retired and could not afford too much time out, but would want to do any building/decorating works ourselves 

So for us it is just an impractical dream. 

If you still have the dream intact, look out for property exhibitions advertised in local newspapers.

 

 

FOR AN ANOTHER WAY TO GET A TOEHOLD ON PROPERTIES ABROAD …

PRESS HERE….  

  


 

laterlife interest

The above article is part of the features section of laterlife.com called laterlife interest. laterlife interest contains a variety of articles of interest for visitors to laterlife.com written by a number of experienced and new journalists.

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