Hello there and a very warm welcome to my April France newsletter. Yes, Spring is officially well underway and, although it was not a terribly warm Easter weekend, there is a definite feeling of warmth in the air here in our office – and this is not just due to hopes of balmy weather to come...

I have some wonderful news to share with you: I am getting married! So yes, love is also in the air here. Needless to say, my fiancé is also a great lover of all things French and we are planning a symbolic wedding in the Pas de Calais region in early July. As you may know from my France Buying Guide, to have one’s legal ceremony in France is very restrictive (you need to be a resident in the Commune where you decide to marry) so we have decided to do the legal bit here in the UK and have a blessing and short symbolic ceremony in France. We have found a lovely old water mill, which is now a small hotel, on the banks of a river – think a beautiful “Monet” painting and you will have the picture. It is SO exciting!

If you are planning a wedding, you can get much more information on this from my France Property Buying Guide (see below) or do call me and I will give you some tips. Personally I cannot think of anything more romantic than marrying in France and we are, as I write, getting down to the nitty gritty of choosing flowers, menus and the like – plus my fiancé, who is a designer, is busy planning his “mise en scene” (which literally means "putting on stage" - the setting of a play or film) although admittedly with a slightly smaller budget than he would have if he were working on a film!

I thought you would like to share in my happy news - we all need a bit of a boost at the moment don’t we, and everyone loves a love story. I will keep you posted as we prepare for the happy day and then let you have some photos later on.

So what else is new this month? Well, I have recently been asked about the possibility of successfully running a gite in France so I have a few tips on this for you, our own financial wizard, Charles Purdy, gives you the very latest information on the Euro and how to make the most of your hard earned cash when you are buying abroad and I have found a truly fabulous property for you to drool over. Then take a peek at our "Hot off the Press" section - this is a really GREAT time to buy in France!" I give you a little more info about holiday lettings and end off with a top tip!

Read on and don’t forget to email or call me with any queries/stories/information you would like to share with your fellow readers. Call 0207 898 0549.

Kind regards as always,

Alexis
mailto:Alexis@overseasguidescompany.com
France Buying Guide
The Overseas Guides Company Ltd
0207 898 0549 (call me!)

The 3 “Rs” – Renovation, refurbishment and running costs of a gite in France

One of the lovely things about buying a property in France is that it is incredibly easy to find somewhere with a home plus another building, be it a barn, large shed or simply a separate little house, on the same property. The advantage of course is that if your main residence is in reasonable order, you can spend time doing up your outbuilding at your leisure. If you are thinking of doing this in order to make money from a gite business, this is perfectly achievable as long as you follow a few guidelines.

Let’s start with Renovation. Plan this realistically and realise at the outset that some things will need to be done in what may seem to be a strange order. There are some tasks which are tempting to start on because they quickly show results or doing them may be something you really like doing – but you have to work first on the things which take longest to “mature” and prioritise those. Landscaping is the most obvious one. Think about buying small plants and bulbs which will flourish year after year - they will provide you with the framework of your garden.

As far as hiring artisans goes, a local will know the best artisans to use and what you should expect to pay for work done. Always get a proper quotation or “devis”. This will protect you in the future should anything go awry. When I was doing my own property up in the lovely little village of Montjoi, Tarn et Garonne, I hired an excellent local builder recommended by a neighbour and was greatly impressed not only with his workmanship but his reliability (yes he turned up every day on time!).

You will need to make sure you have enough resources in place to cover the building work that needs doing. Also, if you are not going to be in the area throughout the restoration you may need to have some sort of project management in place to ensure that work on your property does not slip down the priority ladder in the artisan’s diary, so delaying completion on your gite.

TOP TIP: If you are doing the whole thing on your own, be wary of contacting too many artisans in the area. I would advise getting 3 quotes and making your decision quickly so you don’t leave people hanging on. This can cause resentment and irritation to people that you may need at a later date.

So on to Refurbishment. I would say at the start that you need to be very clear about what you are trying to achieve. Do you envisage your gite being your permanent home or at least staying in the family in the future? Or is it your intention to sell it after a few years? That knowledge may impact your decision as to what materials are used: the quality of the fitted kitchen for example and whether you pick tiles that are “on offer” and not those that are the exact shade of duck egg blue you adore!

The key to good renovation and subsequent refurbishment is for the gite to be appropriate for its use. For instance, paint the walls, don’t worry about wallpaper. If you are doing up bathrooms choose white as it always looks fresh.

When it comes to equipping your gite, keep in mind plain and simple china and cutlery – again stick to white for your plates and dishes, it always works! Plain glasses are fine, forget about those pretty ones you saw with blue stems which will be less easy to match - breakages are bound to happen.

So from the kettle down to the bathmat, think simple and very clean looking. You need to walk a careful line between inexpensive and cheap and nasty!

TOP TIP: Even if you inherit some weird colours in the bathroom, don’t discount white tile paint – it works wonders!

Finally, Running costs. Here you need to think “truly welcoming but appropriate”. You can either spend money on a local caretaker who will personally welcome your guests and explain the local area or leave a really excellent “welcome pack” that covers all the things you yourself would wish to know about. A nice bottle of wine (this need not cost much in France) put on the table with a personally written welcome note from you and a small vase of flowers works wonders.

Consider who you will find to look after your gite. It is easier to appoint one person to take care of the changeovers, cleaning and laundry and arrange key exchange etc. Check locally; ask your neighbours, you can often find people that way.

The most obvious expenses are the changeovers, general maintenance of your gite and advertising. You ideally should repaint your main rooms every 6 to 9 months. Bed linen will need renewing about every 3 years and wine glasses have a weird habit of getting lost or broken so work in a budget for replacing such items as these.

TOP TIP: Don’t worry about providing towels: they get abused and quickly become scruffy and really decent ones cost quite a lot. Most people are relaxed about bringing their own towels provided you supply the bed linen and this way you will be able to afford really decent sheets!

The initial cash outlay for setting up your gite may come as quite a shock. Remember you ideally need 2 sets of bedding for each bed and a fully equipped kitchen. Think also about decent garden furniture, a TV and DVD player, maybe internet access: the list can seem endless. But a well equipped gite will stand you in excellent stead for future bookings for those business people who want to keep in touch while on holiday.

To sum up, here is my very own quick “DO” and “DON’T” list for making a success of your gite business.

DO

• Give yourself enough time to prepare
• Get someone local with a good reputation to help you and to be there when you are not
• Think of the order in which you need to plan things at the outset
• Decorate your gite in an appropriately clean and fresh way
• Work on your marketing/advertising and make sure it is accurate and welcoming
• Think “French”: simple, elegant and classic

DON’T

• Try to rush things
• Fill your gite with cast offs which don’t quite “fit the bill”
• Make it too fussy so it is difficult to care for and clean
• Make your garden too labour intensive: again, simple is the key. Hanging baskets are a favourite of mine although they do need watering every day!
• Underestimate the standard your gite needs to be to get noticed and booked

Finally there are 2 excellent bonus sections in my France Buying Guide where you will find a wealth of information not only on gites but also on shopping, lifestyle, driving etc. If you have yet to get your own copy, simply click here:

http://www.FranceBuyingGuide.com/guide.htm

Is sterling out of the woods yet?

by Smart Currency’s Charles Purdy.

Is sterling out of the woods yet? A fair question given what we have been through and the vast amounts that have been thrown by our government at the banks and the economy in a desperate attempt to stave off a depression.

My response tends to be conditional. I think most people would agree that sterling is too low against the euro and, even though we may never return to a rate of over €1.50/£1, most consider a rate of €1.20+/£1 feasible.

So what is stopping us getting to this rate? Uncertainty on two fronts. Firstly, we need to see a period of financial stability and a period in which we can see the world economies moving forward not backwards. This is a matter of time and is likely to be measured in months and perhaps even years. Also we need to be sure that the UK does not need to go to the IMF cap in hand for a bailout, given the huge debts and problems we have. Timescales for this scenario are shorter but if it happens then sterling will lose value very quickly and we may look at the current value of sterling as the halcyon days when £1 was worth more than €1.

That is why I always ask clients to have a clear and realistic exchange rate in mind when they are looking to buy currency. Because trying to guess what is going to happen tends to be a fools game with exchange rates doing the exact opposite of what you hope or expect. When this happens great uncertainty arises, leading to increased stress levels as you need to find further money or have less than you expected. Not a great outcome and something that could be avoided or at least minimised by have a partner such as ourselves working with you.

If you haven’t had a chance to discuss in detail what the alternatives are for your currency concerns then please give us a ring and we will be happy to talk about your possible options. To get a Better-than-Bank rate go to: http://www.smartCurrencyExchange.com/smartsquotation.htm
or call Carl on 08081 630 102 freephone.

To read the latest on Serling and the Euro go to: http://www.FranceBuyingGuide.com/Currency300409.htm

A truly special property…

My offering this month is a 4 bedroom Farmhouse, which has been reduced in price to €386,900 - agency fees included.

This 250 year old 4 bedroom, 3 bathroom stone-built farmhouse has been renovated over the years to provide a very beautiful home with generous living space in a most magnificent setting, surrounded by trees and undulating farmland.

It is within walking distance of the village yet rural in its location. Only 12 minutes from the market town of Coulonges sur L'Autize, 15 minutes from Secondigny and 35 minutes from Niort it is also equidistant from the La Rochelle and Poitiers, at an hour and 10 minutes. Add to that that there are two airports within very easy travelling time of the town: La Rochelle is served by Ryanair, easyJet and flybe, while Poitiers has flights from the UK with Ryanair. Poitiers has a TGV stop which makes train travel a good choice, as you can take Eurostar from the UK to Paris, then simply hop on a TGV for Poitiers.

More about the actual house: the lovely lounge has original oak flooring, exposed beams, an open fireplace with a wood burner and has double glazed windows. The dining room has a built-in oak bookcase and cupboards, tiled flooring, exposed beams, with a door leading out onto the terrace.

The kitchen is enchanting, with fully fitted oak floors and units, Italian wall tiles, an corner walk-in cupboard, terra cotta floor tiles, exposed beams, a wisteria covered pergola – what more could one want? The door leads out onto the terrace from the kitchen too.

Upstairs, the master bedroom has a walk-in wardrobe, oak hand laid flooring and exposed beams plus an en-suite shower room. There are three more lovely bedrooms with exposed beams, one of which could be made into an office if so desired. There is also a large bathroom, which could be made into an en-suite to one of the bedrooms plus an extra shower room and a separate toilet on the first floor.

Also included on the property is a cellar plus a barn, attached to the rear of house on both floors and accessed from the house hallway AND another open barn within the garden. You want more? Well, there is lots of parking AND a swimming pool set in an attractive garden, which is mostly to the front and rear of the house, with lawned areas, flower beds and established trees. This is just the sort of property we were discussing earlier in terms of a gite isn’t it?

This option becomes even more attractive when I tell you about the surrounding area. The town of Coulonges-sur-l’Autize, in the Deux-Sèvres department of western France, is situated on the edge of the lovely and unusual Marais Poitévin. This network of canals and waterways are frequently called the Venice of France. An attractive market town, Coulonges-sur-l’Autize lies in a beautiful region and is perfect for those property seekers who are hoping to find a rural idyll in unspoiled countryside.

There are many nearby attractions for the visitor: majestic chateaux and some of France’s prettiest villages surround you and the town has one or two of the important monuments and historic places. There is a grand chateau, which is open for the public to visit from May to November every year. Also there is the Romanesque Church of St Etienne, and the important Gallo Roman remains just outside the town. Absolutely perfect gite country I would have thought, or alternatively a wonderful place to invite family and friends to spend the long summer’s days with you, either relaxing or exploring the simply exquisite countryside…

The town also offers plenty of shops and has a bank, a couple of restaurants and a supermarket, so although it’s usually quiet, it has most of the facilities you will require for day to day living, which means that you don’t have to travel miles to stock up on necessities.

For those who are interested in sports, the town offers tennis, cycling, horse-riding and swimming, and you don’t have to travel too far to find a golf course or a fishing lake either. Less sporty choices include trips to the Atlantic coast, to La Rochelle or the Ile de Ré; shopping and sightseeing sprees to the nearby large towns of Poitiers or Niort; and, of course, a leisurely boat trip down the peaceful waterways of the Marais Poitévin

I must say that I think this property won’t stay on the market very long, especially as the price is very reasonable. If you are interested please give me a call on 0207 898 0549 and we can discuss your requirements and put you in touch with the agents. Alternatively, you can fill in the form at: http://www.FranceBuyingGuide.com/property.htm

Hot off the Press

There is no doubt that property prices in France are now the lowest they have been since the end of 2004. What does this mean to the potential buyer? Well, it means that, with a continuing fall in prices and interest rates, clever people are buying property in France now.

In their latest housing market report, the French estate agents association, FNAIM, reports that house prices fell by 1.7% in the first quarter of the year. House prices are now 11.2% lower than they were 12 months ago, while the price of apartments has dropped by 8.4% - it really is quite staggering, isn’t it?

On a regional basis, the South East has seen an overall price fall of 13.3%, whilst double figure average price falls have also occurred in the Ile de France, where they are down by 11.2% compared with the same period in 2008. The movement in houses and apartments per region over the past 12 months is shown on the following table.

	Apartments	Houses	Overall
West	-5.5	-8.9	-7.7
Ile de France	-9.4	-14.5	-11.2
North and East	-1.2	-8.6	-6.1
South West	-2.3	-8.7	-6.4
Centre and Alps	-7.4	-10.1	-8.8
South East	-12.7	-14	-13.3
Average	-8.4	-11.2	-9.8

There has been an interesting and varied drop in property prices in the main cities and towns, especially concerning apartments. For instance, the largest average fall in apartment prices in the past year has been at Toulon (-19.3%). Others experiencing large price falls are Cannes at -13.7%, Grenoble at -11.7% and Aix en Provence at-10.7%.

No figures are available for the movement on house prices in the major towns and cities, but, as you can imagine, the slowdown in the number of sales has made the headlines in the French press, with FNAIM reporting a 25% fall since the beginning of the year, compared to the same period in 2008.

FNAIM thinks that prices will drop still further, mainly because of a continuing lack of confidence caused by the worldwide credit crisis. They are therefore forecasting price falls of a further 5%-10% by the end of 2009.

If you have the finances available, there will never be a better time to buy in France than the next few months. Prices will go up again – it is as inevitable as night following day – but they may never get this low again. I have a wonderful property professional available in France – you may like to discuss this with them? Please phone me on 0207 898 0549 and we can chat about it.

Holiday Lettings

I talked about holidaylettings.co.uk last month, suggesting that you access their website about properties abroad in France and that you ‘try before you buy’.

I had tremendous response, either from people who had rented properties through the website or from people who had properties abroad that they were advertising to let through them. Without exception they were all thrilled with the service they received – in fact, just a glance at their testimonials page will bear me out here.

It occurred to me that this really is the perfect site to advertise your property abroad if you have decided to rent it out. Suffice it to say that holidaylettings.co.uk was ranked in the top 10 of the most visited property websites throughout 2008, ahead of all other UK holiday home letting sites, by Hitwise, the leading online intelligence service.

I went into the website myself and I must say that I found the whole process very professional and easy to set up. Once you log in to place an advert and give your contact details, you are led through the whole process with questions such as property location, how to get there, transport links etc. You then go on to describe the property in your own words.

Once complete, this application then goes through to their Activation Team for payment. What I like is that they also check on whether the property meets the company’s criteria plus that the advert is both grammatically correct and that the content is sufficiently appealing. They do have certain minimum standards which ensure the best performance for not only your individual advert but also the site as a whole. If necessary they will revert to you with suggestions on how to make the advert even more attractive to prospective clients and will suggest anything that needs to be included in order to have the most appeal. Should you doubt your descriptive skills, a member of our Customer Service Team can even set up your advert for a £20 + VAT fee.

The home description is an important part of your advert and is designed to provide an introduction as well as inspire those reading it to pick your property. It should provide a broad and inviting overview of the kind of holiday potential guests could expect to have if they came to stay at your property, without going into too much detail about specific facilities - these can be mentioned later on.

Pictures are the most important aspect of your advert. They are often the first thing people look at and are therefore crucial to forming first impressions of your home. Enticing photos will encourage people to look further into the photo gallery and the rest of your advert; having good photos will help maximise the rental potential for your property and help boost the number of people that view your advert.

Their offering includes the Classic Advert and the more expensive but more comprehensive Premium Advert. There are also many additional extra services available, including Advert access 24/7, Lettings advice, Photo enhancements and Inputting service. Additional marketing services include Spotlights, Late deals, Early bargains and Additional adverts.

Once activated, booking enquiries sent via your advert go straight to you directly and holidaylettings.co.uk can even set up free SMS text messages to ensure you don't miss out on that all important booking – how brilliant is that?!

On holidaylettings.co.uk you really can show off your holiday rentals to their full potential, giving you exposure to more than 2 million holidaymakers visiting the website every month. How do they reach such a large audience? Well, they advertise in over 28 magazines and newspapers monthly, reaching more than 16 million readers. They are also proactive in their marketing and their latest New Year campaign reached millions of people travelling on the London Underground and in cabs around London. They achieve top search engine rankings and invest heavily in online marketing to ensure the highest levels of holidaymaker traffic to the site.

There are really just too many advantages to list here: for instance, to see if your property is appropriately priced you can take a look at other similar properties on the site to see that you are not overcharging. You can also refer to their pricing advice page. You can check on how your advert is performing by clicking on the view enquiries section of your home management page. From here you can see the number of hits (visits to your page) you have had over the past 30 days and the number of enquiries you have had over the course of a year. The advantages are endless. It really is a well thought out and intensely helpful website that should maximise the number of people looking to rent your property.

One of my associates has managed to get a very special deal for Guide Readers on the holidaylettings.co.uk website. If you enter the following promotional code you can get 15 months of advertising (of your property) for the price of 12 months – Code: 45749. Or, just go to: Holiday Lettings– the code will appear automatically.

To Kiss or not to Kiss

Well, as you now know, love is very much in the air for me at the moment so I hope you will forgive me if my top tip this month is somewhat related!

Picture the scene: you meet a French person who you know reasonably well, you smile broadly, establish eye contact and then maybe waiver with your head slightly inclined and your hand ready for shaking. To kiss or not to kiss?

The short answer is, if you know them quite well: a peck on each cheek whilst clutching hands will meet with general French approval. In some parts of France this may extend to 4 kisses (“la tradition Parisienne”, an old French friend of mine once told me…l)

The France Property Buying Guide

Today, when times are tough financially, it’s even more important to be on your guard and to really research what you are doing, how you are doing it, and who you are using along your overseas property journey to help you to achieve your dreams.

There are many people out there who will bend over backwards to help you and to ensure that things go well for you. However, human nature being what it is, there are also those who will be looking after their own interests with little or no regards for yours, so I would urge you to take care.

The France Buying Guide outlines the whole property purchase process simply and clearly, pointing out all the do’s and don’ts and all the pitfalls that can await the unwary. It is so easy, in the heat of the moment, to let your heart rule your head – but forewarned is forearmed and, with the Guide by your side, you will have all the information you need to ensure a successful purchase.

What I have found is that normally sensible, lucid people take risks abroad that they would not dream of taking if buying property in the UK. Not retaining their own lawyer but using the vendor’s is a classic example, and the one that I hear the most harrowing and tragic tales about.

Let me say no more: I leave it to the Guide’s readers to do the talking! To get your Guide, go to:
http://www.FranceBuyingGuide.com/guide.htm

Hi Alexis

Just thought we would let you know that we have found our dream house in France. It's in Deux Sevres, a beautiful old farm house about 3 kms from Moncoutant.

We would like to thank you for all your help and to say that we think that you are amazing! What a wonderful service you give to potential house buyers and to think you do all this for free, not like some companies I could mention.

We were actually approached by one company after we visited the show at Olympia who wanted to charge us over 8,000 euros just for arranging visits and a hand holding service like yours.

We will keep in touch and let you know when we are actually moving, which should be around the end of January next year.

Once again may we say a big thank you.

Kind Regards
Dave & Linda Griffiths

Vive L’Amour

I do hope you have enjoyed this month’s newsletter. I count myself so lucky, not only to have found the love of my life somewhat late in life and to share my happiness with you, but also to work at a job I adore and write about our favourite subject: France,

Until next time, keep thinking of everything France, let me know how I can help and all the best this lovely Springtime.

Kind regards till next time,

Alexis
France Buying Guide
The Overseas Guides Company Ltd
0207 898 0549 (call me!)
mailto:Alexis@overseasguidescompany.com