Riggend15

Brilliant just watched your video looks amazing .

graham.miln

We are building in Allier, department 03, the link should work but maybe the secure https part is causing problems. Try our YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/loveallier

Update: Thank you! The videos are turning out to be a great way to keep our family and friends up-to-date.

dmu

As indicated, 12 isn't an ideal age for a child to be thrown in at the deep end in a French Collège. There's a Sticky in the "Read-Me FAQs: Moving to France" thread above, which gives an idea of what a foreign pupil would have to cope with in Secondary Education. At that age, an International School would be recommended for your son if you decided to move lock stock. High schools (collège and lycée) are all different and you'd need some one in your area who's been there and done that to recommend or advise against one.
Healthcare is compulsory in France and if you are "inactive" there are a few options to examine before considering private healthcare insurance. There's an updated Read-Me thread on the subject above!

TinaBee

If it is for holidays, it may be much better to do as you suggest - get something that has already been renovated and just needs a few finishing touches. A renovation can take up all of your holiday time and you may find materials a lot more expensive than in the UK.

We have done both renovation and new build (whilst living here) and there are pros and cons with both.

There are certainly a lot of habitable properties available in our area (Normandy) that have had the bulk of the renovation work done that can be bought pretty cheaply.

InVinoVeritas

Hi Riggend. In view of the fact that you don't speak any French I would certainly not recommend that you undertake a new-build project, in any case there is currently no financial incentive to do that as land prices have held up quite well, whilst property prices have slumped. You could easily spend more money than buying an existing property.

Doing up an old property has been discussed several times in the French forum and it is not for the faint-hearted, even those who are fluent in French!

There is quite a lot of distressed property for sale due to the state of the French economy but these are most often sold through enchères (auctions), which again would be a bit of a trial even for those fluent in the language. Often because these are forced sales by banks, liquidators etc you are limited in terms of the amount of time you can spend viewing the property (usually the world and his wife are all allowed in on a single open day at the property to prod and poke). Also normal vendor warranties such as vices cachés (hidden defects) are explicitly absent.

For a bargain therefore your best bet would be an urgent sale by an agent or notaire (solicitor) but for this you would need to be very flexible on the exact location, type of property, condition and age, plus also be in a position to move very fast; so no mortgages, sale of own property etc

If you want to go this route, even if you say you are interested in urgent sales, you can't expect a good agent or notaire to disclose the circumstances of his clients. Better to say you are looking for a seller who is in a position to move very fast, look at all the properties proposed and put in very low offers on the ones you would be prepared to buy. You will not make many friends doing this but it can be done in the current market conditions.

Hope this helps you a little.

++IVV

cyrian

You should also consider that you may not make any profit from the eventual sale of your property.
Fer example, if you add a swimming pool to a property then you may not get any of the money back on the pool. (Perhaps other than from UK expats).
If you go for a holiday home then you should consider transport.
Poitou-Charente is 2 days from Scotland by car plus fuel costs; ferry or tunnel costs and motorway tolls.
If you fly then you should look for direct Scotland - France (12 months a year) flights. You then need to look at the transfer from the airport to your home.
I would suggest that initially, you rent a holiday home for say a month in the summer which would allow you to investigate an area and estate agents and prices.
If you plan on making your move in a few years then your son will perhaps have left school and you have a chance to learn french and understanding the French system.
House (and land) prices do not rise in price as they do in the UK. Sometimes a property can take 2+ years to sell. A property that you see on the market today may still be available one or two years later.

bigglesworth

I had not picked up on the Scottish connection. Well spotted Cyrian.
But to be fair, is anywhere in France much closer? It is under 5 hours drive from here to Calais. Airports, the major part of our journey time seems to be hanging around Stansted or wherever waiting for Ryanair to be kind enough to bus us over. Our children live in North and East London. If they fly, it takes six or seven hours to get here. If they drive it takes eight or nine. By train it takes six or seven as well but I am not sure when HS2 will be extended to Scotland.

cyrian

Ryanair
Edinburgh - Beziers; Edinburgh - Bordeaux; Edinburgh - Marseille and Edinburgh - Poitiers (summer only)
Glasgow - Carcassonne
EasyJet
Glasgow - Marseille
Glasgow - Paris
Edinburgh - Paris
Edinburgh - Nice
Edinburgh - Grenoble
Hope that helps.

graham.miln

As others have mentioned, having at least some comfort with the French language has been essential for us building a new house. Our French is not great but enough to get by.

We chose to build over buying an existing property for a few reasons. We wanted a fixed cost at the outset. Of course that cost has risen but for optional extras we picked. Thankfully those have been within reasonable limits.

A renovation felt too risky for us because of unforeseen costs and having experienced first hand how poorly maintained some French property can be.

Having rented in France for a few years in old properties, we wanted to guarantee a warm and dry house. The RT2012 building standards ensure new houses are well insulated and energy efficient. RT2012 however has limited some of our choices and constrains the builders to pick only from conforming products. Our oddball ideas imported from Australia and UK quickly met with difficulties.

In choosing our location, we were aware of schools, supermarkets, transport, and Internet. We made sure to pick an area were the closure of one supermarket would not leave us stranded.

We dealt with notaires to buy the land. Be aware notaires are not solicitors and do not represent you. If you search, you may be able to find a notaire that speaks some English. The notaire, even if they speak English, may still require a translator for the final contract signing. You can pick any notaire in the country; they do not have to be local to the property.

For the administrative side of building, our builders dealt with the paperwork. This included filing for planning permission, site insurance, RT2012 studies, and studies related to the local risk plan such as clay and seismic risks. This was all included in the fixed price.

We found being physically in front of estate agents (immobiliers) and walking into the offices of building firms almost essential to getting a reply of any kind.

petitefrancaise

The Op's husband is a builder. Yes, I know regulations/electricity blah blah are different but just the fact that he knows what he's doing puts him in a different category to most of the "want to buy a wreck and do it up and drink rose for the rest of my life" brigade.

My uncle was a builder and he and my aunt bought a "barn" to do up as a holiday home, they spent a few years to-ing and fro-ing with their van, bringing supplies (and willing kids) over from the UK. Eventually, they semi-retired and finished the by-now rather luxurious "barn" . Living there permanently, my uncle was constantly being asked to do building work. He set up as micro-something or other. Eventually, they left France to tour europe in their RV. Neither of them spoke french when they arrived, they managed and had a nice time and they made money on the place.

Kids, though. Don't bring them to go to school unless you have a very, very compelling reason and are prepared to fund french lessons and english lessons.

Shirtback

This, if kids are >8 - ish.

As for building/renovating wrecks/general living without good French: I'm very jaded having spent far too much time translating/interpreting/explaining for unilingual Anglo-incomers .