Threat of Brexit helps boost French property market

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If property sellers in France were concerned that the threat of Brexit might impact on the French property market, it turns out that they needn’t have worried at all. In fact, this year, agents here tell me that they are inundated with buyers from all over Europe but that the greatest majority are from the UK. Likewise, local Notaires have reluctantly had to drag themselves away from the golf courses to deal with the increase in sales transactions since January.

This upsurge in English buyers does, nonetheless, probably have its roots in Brexit, fuelled by the concern that the legal right of Brits to buy a property in France may disappear if the UK votes to leave Europe. Plus it looks likely that the value of sterling will fall, at least initially, in the case of a Brexit and hence the buying power of the British will be much reduced.

In addition, of course, George Osborne seems to have been doing his very best over the last couple of years to scare off anyone in the UK wanting to invest in property or to buy a holiday home in Britain. Hence many British house buyers are clearly looking to spend their money elsewhere to avoid giving quite so much of it to the chancellor, either through stamp duty, income tax or inheritance tax later on.

In fact, for just the price of the stamp duty that you will pay on an average London home you can buy a truly fabulous country home in France. So suddenly the sensible money is looking to the stable and long term proven advantages of classic French houses and this has, of course, given a huge boost to the property market over here.

Add this to the highly advantageous exchange rates we have seen since the beginning of the year, the very low mortgage rates and the incredibly good value offered by French country homes and it is not difficult to see why anyone working in property in France is currently very busy.

This does, unfortunately for buyers, also mean that it is getting harder to find nice properties here and that the good ones are selling fast so, if you need help with your search, please do get in touch: nadia@foothillsoffrance.com

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