How's the property market doing...?

[Puggit]

Just spoken to the agent who sold us the house in Sarthe 2 years ago. He says that the Loire region has been the most stable area in France, seeing 'only' a 20% drop in prices. Some parts seeing apparently 35% reductions.

Bit of a shame really - he priced our pad at €180k when we bought it for €195k and added an extra bedroom!! We'll need to sit tight

[smifffymoto]

Don't know about houses but we saved £120k on our camping site in Ariege,that was in May

[Stig]

No fussed for another 3 years, otherwise we'd be hit by 19% capital gains

[neil-f]

Our agent in the Drome claims things are jogging along ok in our region, must say that in our village anything that comes on the market sells quickly.
We bought ours at a good price so still in profit if we had to sell but have no intention.

[leyorkie]

On the bright side if you bought when the euro was 1.5/£ and you sell when it is 1.1/£, when you cash in, in the UK you get your money back due to the exchange rate

[neil-f]

We bought @ €1.47
But not going to sell so does not matter.

[Puggit]

We bought at €1.45, but after you add the extraordinary tax/notaire rates for buying and also the CGT if selling in under 2 years, not worth the effort.

So we are funding our upgrade in the UK on other money!

[Richie200]

I bought about the same time as you Jan 06, when the exchage rate was €1.50ish. I have been speaking to my agency about selling and the prices in the South West, where we bought, are generally down about 20%. However if you bought in a sought after part of the town the prices are pretty much the same as '06. This is still no help though as it usually takes about a year to shift property in France so it probably best to sit on it for a while yet.

[Electron]

I bought my house about nine years ago. I'm sort of looking to sell it but was surprised to see in the thread that Capital Gains Tax in France was listed at 19% as I for some unknown reason had 33% on the gain in my head ...

Could anyone clarify ??

Also if you live in the house as your primary residence do you avoid or reduce your tax like the UK ??

I'm trying to persuade the wife it would be better to move out full time for a year or two to eventually sell it :-)

[Electron]

Sorry it was late last night so maybe I should have both created another thread and used google a bit better http://www.frenchentree.com/fe-legal/displayarticl... ....

Chris