EPISODE 11
Lloyd and Mark discuss areas to look at for property bargains and Mark gets upset with Flybe internet booking!
LA - Great to be here again in the studio. Just give you an idea of how far we are reaching. Had a message from a viewer in South Africa to say while they are not looking to buy somewhere now they enjoy the programmes.
MJ - Thats one of the great things about the internet, you can link up with people all over the world. We have some ideas to make the show interactive, more on that at the end.
We are not alone - Like to thank our producer Peter.
LA - Recently asked by someone who has just come back to the UK after being in Sweden. They are looking to buy in France and wanted to know where the cheapest places in France are. This really is dependent on what kind of property you are looking for. Whether it be a renovation project or something you can move in to. Also if you are going to move out there or have it as holiday home or rental.
Limousin and Auvergne have some of the cheapest properties namely Corrèze but bear in mind these are rural areas and may not have all the facilities you are looking for. So if a getaway from it all location is what you are after then here is a good place to start. You can get a total renovation project from a little as 8,500 euro.
You can get property for less than 100K but prices are on the increase all over so if you are after a bargain then the sooner the better.
Mark what are the properties in the Dordogne like?
MJ - Properties in the Dordogne are generally expensive being a popular tourist destination. There are wrecks of houses near us that have been for sale for years at unrealistic prices! You will be lucky to pick anything decent up for under 100,000. Bargains are few and far between.
We are in the North of the Dordogne and that is cheaper than for example along the Dordogne river. When we were looking 6/7 years ago similar properties there were at least 25% more expensive there than where we are. But 20 km north of us they are cheaper again, in the Correze.
You haven’t had to face this yet Lloyd but many people with second homes in France will be making a trip over in the next month or two to close the house up for the winter.
LA - That’s not something I am looking forward to doing. Being further south it is perhaps not quite as important as in some areas. What do you have to think about?
MJ - We do get temperatures of -10 to -20 in the winter so frozen pipes can be a problem. Obviously it is best to drain the system down if you can and lag any particularly exposed areas that you can’t drain. Swimming pools can be another problem. We seal all the inlets/outlets and drain the pipes and all the equipment in the technical room. This is where all the inflatable air beds etc come in useful!
LA - Anything else you need to think about doing?
MJ - We try as best as we can to protect the place from the local wildlife population but they are clever little so and so’s! All bedding etc is put away, dust sheets are put everywhere and we turn most of the electrical circuits off. We do have a CCTV system connected to the internet but am never sure if this is a good idea or not!
LA - Security is one of the things I was thinking about, maybe we’ll take a look at that in separate episode.
MJ - We normally go out before the end of October and will do the same again this year.
SECTION 2 - Rant of the week
MJ - In fact we just booked our tickets and that exercise made me mad! I love flying Flybe, friendly staff, local airports, normally a pleasure. But there booking system is being tweaked to get every penny out of you and if you are not careful you will spend more than you have to. To me it is verging on being immoral even if it is legal.
For example the site now automatically selects seats for you , which you have to pay for and it is not obvious how to unselect them, thats £10 per person. The there is paying for baggage. I remember when this was introduced and Jim French talked about it being only £2 per bag and made it fairer for those not wanting to take bags etc. Well now it is £12.99 each way for a 20KG bag! Then if you want to pay by any card except for an Electron card there is a charge. This practice is being investigated and Flybe now appear to have split this charge into 2 parts a transaction fee and a cc charge. This amounted to over 10% on our booked, over £20. In case anyone doesn’t know credit card companies charge around 1 - 2%, probably less for a company like FlyBe.
This really grates with me, as you can tell!
LA - Well I guess we wont be getting any sponsorship from FlyBe for this show then?! Much the same can be said for other budget airlines but I think they are more publicised,so I guess more people are aware of it.
MJ - Don’t get me wrong, I really like FlyBe except for the booking process. If they need to charge £x for a flight, be honest up front and just state that! There is to much of the Dell boy in this process now.
LA - Time to move on before Mark explodes!
SECTION 4 - Our websites for this episode:
LA - My website for this episode is INSEE - National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies - France
http://www.insee.fr/en
MJ - Well I have been talking about flights. There is a very useful map on the French Entree website that enables you to quickly see what flights are available from your local airport:
http://www.frenchentree.com/france-flight-map/france-flight-map/ffm3.asp
The Languedoc-Roussilon region is a up and coming area with Mediterranean coastline on one side to the mountains of the Pyrenees, so this has something for lots of people. The Herault being the cheapest department according to stats.
If you want something closer to home with just a hop across the channel there are deals to be had in Finistère, Brittany for just under 32,000 euro
So are you going out to close the house up soon?
If you want to take a look at the statistics of population and demographics of France
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