According to the French agency body FNAIM, price rises overall in France have slowed to a halt in recent months – some regions, Paris and the South East are still rising strongly, many regions in the center and West have dropped and our region, Languedoc has moved slightly upwards with some local falls, Narbonne for instance is down, Montpellier is up.
According to the report, which is published in an excellent newsletter I have mentioned before at the French Property site, the melt-down in property in places like the UK and USA are not likely to affect France much – the French are a lot more conservative with their money and banks only lend against one third of disposable household income.
One reason not considered for the stability of the Languedoc prices is the huge amount of land which has been given planning permission in the last two years – this has had the affect of keeping prices level. But there is not much left which is now undeveloped or allocated, so right now is probably the best time to buy in Languedoc. Which, in my opinion, is the best place to live.
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Hello Tony,
I have lived in France for over 10yrs with a maison secondaire for another 10 and we are based in the Loire just north of Saumur.
My question really is that after a very wet and cold long winter here in the Loire what has your climate been like.
We have just finished a new house with geothermie underfloor heating and the house is wonderfully warm but that has highlighted the cold outside! I just wondered if you were much warmer and less wet down there?
Look forward to hearing from you
Mary
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Hi Mary,
This year it has been a chilly winter in Languedoc, sometimes as low as +2 or +3 at night and for me this is really cold. The Mediterranean climate is very predictable – we get 300 sunny days a year – therefore 65 wet ones, of these perhaps five are really wet, big storms, floods and thunder – but it lasts a few hours and is good fun.
I am changing the central heating in our house from oil to gas so ran out of fuel a month ago – with one fireplace we are still warm – most houses do not have much heating here, but I love central heating and always advise it.
We have lived in France for 20 years – we lived near Lyon for the first four years and thought “What is the point of being her if we don’t live in he best climate” – so we moved to the Herault – perfect!
I love the Mediterranean climate – for year round warmth perhaps Florida or California are more even, but, for me, nothing beats the climate here – exciting, hot, healthy and invigorating.
“Come on down”
Tony