"Emery Davis" wrote in message
...
Hi David,

On Mon, 2 Jul 2007 09:50:05 +0200
"David \(Normandy\)" wrote:

The French property market doesn't have the high inflation of the UK
housing
market, which is perhaps a good thing. There are several reasons, but
basically the taxes and estate agent fees are very high. They are on a
sliding time scale which makes it punitive to sell within two years after
the initial purchase (especially with having to share any 'profit' with
the
previous owners). But the seller is still heavily taxed if selling within
five years of purchase.

Hm. Our property has increased more than eight-fold in value in 15 years.
That's a pretty healthy inflation, for the deep country. Of course there
has
been renovation, and the new autoroutes help -- Normandy has been cut off
from
the rest of France for big roads, since the Duke of Alencon supported the
Monarchy during the revolution.

Inflation in Paris and region is currently around 8%, but around 70% over
the last 5 years.
I believe this is comparable to the London market.

We looked at selling on our old stone barn with a bit of land for someone
to
renovate, but the amount of tax and fees we would have to pay made
selling a
none starter, so it looks like it will just continue to crumble into
dereliction, like most old stone barns in France.

The buyer pays notaire's fees and taxes, so long as you wait the requisite
amount
of time -- to show you're not a "speculator" or some other "anglo-saxon
liberal
capitalist" (local terms of derision) -- you should be OK.

With respect, I think "most old stone barns in France" is a bit strong. I
think if
you look more closely you'll see that many of these buildings are tied up
in
inheritance litigation, which prevents anything at all being done with
them.
(The inheritance laws are a certifiable disaster). At least that's the
case around
here. Every other little barn or fermette is sold in a fortnight after
coming to
market, or more often doesn't hit the market at all but sells by word of
mouth.

Anyway, all this perhaps OT for urg. On the original topic, you can
certainly give
the seedlings away to your neighbors. I'd take 10 or 15 off of you, if
you like!

-E
--
Emery Davis

Emery, you are welcome to some seedlings - we are around 15 minutes drive
from Vire. Directions available on request :-)
When we enquired about selling the old barn we'd been here less than two
years, this meant we would take less than 50% of the sale price after taxes,
fees etc. It just wasn't worth selling. I wasn't implying that this is the
reason that most old barns are heading into dereliction. There are quite a
few old barns and even old stone houses within a few miles of us that are
just falling into ruin, roofs collapsing etc. As you say I think a major
cause of this is the inheritance laws and disagreements among the heirs. I
gather it just takes one 'child' to say 'Non' and that is the end of things.
It is also not cheap to renovate some of these properties - it would often
be cheaper to build a new house rather than spend a fortune renovating a
partial derelict. New houses generally lack the "character" of these older
properties though :-) We fell in love with our old Virginia creeper clad
house as soon as we saw it. A lot of work to renovate it though, while still
habitable, the previous owners had allowed the entire property and grounds
to fall into disrepair for many years.

David.