Bag a British bargain! |
Why buying your French property from a British seller can secure you a superb deal!
 Bag yourself a British bargain!
As the French housing market comes to terms with the global economic downturn, even the much loved and endlessly popular Dordogne region has suffered from a lack of available buyers in the last 12 months. Vendors now have to work much harder to attract fewer buyers and whilst many British buyers still retain the dream of owning their own French home, circumstances have made it harder for them to sell property in the UK or obtain suitable finance. Not to mention a general lack of confidence in the global markets and the dwindling value of the pound versus the world's currencies......
However, in every set of market conditions there are always advantages to be found. British vendors, who will sell their French properties and then plan to return to the UK, have discovered themselves holding a very real "ace" card in the fight to attract a buyer. Whilst a traditional non UK seller can only realistically drop the price of his property in line with market values, a British vendor who intends to repatriate his or her money back to the UK in sterling could be seeing a real gain of up to 50% in value and has a major advantage!
Example: Mr and Mrs UK Seller bought their French property in 2006 for 350,000 Euros. When they purchased their currency on completion, the exchange rate was at 1.46 Euros to the pound meaning, their property cost them around 239,000 pounds. Even taking into account the growth in property values since they purchased nearly 3 years ago, they now find themselves in a slower market as a result of falling demand and a real risk of lower prices. If they were to sell today at the same price at which they purchased their property, based on the December 2009 euro sterling exchange rate of 1.11, they would gain, purely on the value of the weaker pound, by more than 76,000 pounds. Furthermore, in order to secure a buyer, they could even potentially drop their selling price down as low as 265,000 euros and still walk away with the same amount of sterling as they started with!!
Because of this situation, many British vendors are putting themselves in a very strong position in the market by dropping their prices aggressively to make their own properties stand out from the crowd. Those that are not adopting this strategy immediately are still going to be much more inclined to accept a stronger negotiation on their price for the same reasons.
We are not suggesting that anyone would buy a property simply because it could be bought below the market value. Purchasers should always aim to find the best property to suit their requirements at the best possible price. This does mean however, that many cautious buyers are now coming back into the market, tempted by this unique situation.
If you have been holding off on your own "French dream" and waiting for the right time to purchase then this is surely it. Remember, it will only take a simple recovery of sterling to remove this situation at a stoke and a stronger pound will bring more buyers to the market pushing prices for good properties back up again!
Do it now and contact us to begin finding your own British/French bargain!
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