Sun, 21 March 2010
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'They came, they saw, they drove us out of our homes.' That's what some French would say of expat home-owners, but here's why it's not (entirely) our fault that French home prices have climbed so spectacularly.“Vineyards, sunshine, food and walks. Lots of long walks,” Londoner Molly Smith explains the allure of la belle France.
Smith bought her first French retreat in the popular Dordogne region three years ago. Like 100,000 other Brits, she spends her summer months in 'Dordogneshire'—where Cheddar and Stilton feature on market stalls and pubs and cricket clubs are increasingly becoming part of everyday life.
Slick British advertising campaigns have helped attract hoards of Britons to regions like the Dordogne. “Newspaper supplements, television programmes and even adverts on the London underground just added to that feeling that I had to find a way get away from it all,” Mrs Smith reminisces. For the British, France is synonymous with sunshine and holidays.But across the channel, that warm sunny feeling is not always reciprocated. Amid growing alarm over an Anglo-invasion, Brits face accusations of pushing up prices and crowding out locals. In Brittany, where anti-English feeling has been reported as being particularly intense, graffiti urging "Brits out, stop speculation" was earlier this year daubed on the offices of a notary who handles house purchases for UK buyers. The British press was quick to dub the town where the incident occurred, Bourbriac, as the 'village of hate'.
In the Celtic coastal region, locals claim British buyers have pushed up house prices by as much as 50 per cent over the past few years.
Michel Guine is 75 and has lived in Brittany all of his life: “My son cannot afford to buy a home in this village,” he says. “British buyers all seem to be after homes near La Rochelle but it is the local families who are paying the price.”
But it's not just in Brittany where French house-hunters would like to find a scapegoat for skyrocketing prices.
Here's a short introduction to our Banking section for those living in France.
Here's a short introduction to our Where to Live section for France.
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