When to buy a property in Port Grimaud

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Does anyone know anything about
a)the pound against the franc in a few years time down or up?
b)When is the best season to buy a property in S.France
Help!Please
Thanks
 
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The pound is seen as strong at the moment. There's no "single source of wisdom" regarding the pound v franc, although some say that as euro becomes common it will gain strength, as it's seen as weak at the moment.

None of this shd affect your decision about Port Grimaud. But PG is very seasonal, praps a bit empty and silent between october and easter.

Buying property in France ain't like buying in the uk. In france, despite the tax on buying and selling, properties can stick around the same price for years and years. We bought a ski flat 15 years ago, overlooking what was to be the olympic downhill, and after five years sold at ...the same as we'd bought, only made a bit with exchange rates. Meanwhile uk prices had rocketed.

There are a lot of people in SofF who bought a small, not too outlandish two-bed property, but then found they liked it, so they try to sell, but it isn't easy and can take a while (like a year or more) so forget about makig money, and think about owning the place for quite a long time and buy what you want to end up with, not a starter. If you do buy a smaller place, you'll very grovelled over, and some hang about for a while, not just in PG but all along the coast.

PG is attractive to boaties cos the house includes a moring hooray, no more paying berthing fees. But the mooring isn't patrolled, as they are all over the place, and there are thefts. Is buying a bigger boat and no house preferable?

Having said all the miserable above...buying a house in france is very nicely regulated, much less sharky than in the uk, and you can get fixed price long term low rate mortagages on it. You won't make money, it's not an easy trip in the summer, and it's quiet out of season. But it's a lovely place, nice lot of Brits, friendly lot, the go karting track is near (might not be relevant if no small boys) and good for long-season stays.

To directly answer your question, the prices won't move massively, nor will the france, much more important to buy the right place rather than just anything very quickly.
 
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Anybody who knew which way the franc was moving (or any other currency) probably wouldn't be wasting their time on this BB!

Good luck with the house (it can't be a worse investment than a boat).
 
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Re: ooh not quite fair petem

Remember, all those investments, house price rises, pensions, payment plans, eventually have to be spent..and a final limitless resting place for all that loot is on boats. In the Cité Lacustre I wd make sure to buy within walking distance of the main square. But I'd prefer Nice, or Cannes, near but praps not on the front. Boatless Pete and SofF houseless Matts would certainly be happy to visit, check it out, and contribute to the champagne party perhaps? See?
 
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Re: ooh not quite fair petem

Yes sure matt but I don't think your targa would be able to moor its only a small what they call a Balandrie but sure take a look its a lovely house
from
your friend with the red Thunderhawk
 
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Re: ooh not quite fair petem

Alex,

Just out of curiosity what, do you get for your francs these days in Port Grimaud?

Pete
 
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Re: ooh not quite fair petem

Do you mean price of houses because the 2 bedroom ones are £250,000 and the 4 bedrooms are about £750,000-£1,000,000 and thats about the range the best is about 5-6 bedrooms a swimming pool big garden long mooring for about £1,000,000-3,000,000
 
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Well it may berelevant, or not but,,,

I have a relative who's retired to Menorca. He was telling us recently that house prices in the Balearics and Spain in general have been rising rapidly since the beginning of the year mainly due to the Euro effect.

As you are probably aware, next Feb the euro currency comes on stream and within just 2 months, yes TWO MONTHS all the francs, pesetas, marks and whatever, will have to be changed into euro's or won't be worth anything. But what happens to all those people with bucket loads of undisclosed cash sitting in Safe deposit boxes, under the mattress or wherever? They can't take them to the bank to change into euro's 'cos if you try to change anything over the equivalent of I think 5 grand, you have to prove your identity and the banks have to pass the info to the taxman.

So the knock on effect, is that loads of "rich bas***ds", with undeclared income are buying up property, hence the prices are rising.

Don't know if this effect is the same in SofF, but may be worth thinking about. And of course there's not going to be any £ to FF exchange rate to worry about anyway. £ to the Euro in a year? Well if I knew what that was going to do, I'd be a rich bas***d too.
 
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Re: City bulletin board...,,,

Hmmm......there are some flaws in this analysis Colin. The rich continental Europeans with undeclared income (a large group I agree) don't really sit on piles of cash. You see, the undeclared income is not their work income (that invariably is taxed, too hard to avoid) it's actually the income and gains they make from investing their money, which plainly thery can't do if it's under the mattress. Actually if you have say 5million quid in real hard cash you can walk into a bank in lots of places (most of the tax havens or even London if you can get references to show you're not doing your laundry) and deposit it without them telling the taxman. Honestly you can. So get yourself a roll of binbags tomorrow and clear out the beds in your house, lug it all down to the Halifax and start earning some interest :)
 
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Re: seriously , re foreign cash...

there's a big worry that any and all fake notes will have to come out so we have to be v careful.
 
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