Britons’ aspirations of holiday homes in France crushed

Posted under General by Alan

The fall in sterling value and severe credit crunch has crushed the hopes of Britons to own a second home in France.

The online association FNAIM of French estate agents has stated that properties in many areas including Brittany, Dordogney were finding no buyers resulting in collapse of second homes market in France.

Britons are France’s biggest second homeowners, owning 29% of 260,000 foreign-owned homes. Italians own 14%, the Swiss and Germans own 12% and 11% respectively.

The market downturn started in early 2007 and has continuously accelerated to such an extent that a Brittany estate agent, Charles Regnault, claimed that transactions with British clients have declined by 50% since beginning of 2008.

Charles Gillooley, who heads Fnaim in Dordogne, has also reported that there is big decline in transactions by British clients. There are around 20,000 second homes owned by the British.

According to Gillooley, main reason for the downturn in the second homes market as far as British clients’ are concerned is the steep fall of 15% in pound’s value against euro in the past twelve months. He further added that financial upheaval all over the world has led to severe shortage of funds.

An estate agent in Paris has estimated decline of 20% in British buyers of second homes in France during September 2008.

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