For Sale Clefs en Main

 

Does this house look nice? How much do you think it costs? 

Of course there's no way you could give an answer on price until you knew where it was located. If I said it was just outside Nice, you'd be looking at over €1m - the 'demeure' is set on 1750m² of land, has 4 bedrooms, and outbuildings, totally renovated and is ready to move into 'clefs en main' as they say here (keys in hand).

In Montpellier, it wouldn't cost an awful lot less actually - under €1m for sure because it doesn't have a pool, which isn't surprising as it's actually located in Vendée, 20 mins from La Roche-sur-Yon where of course it rains a lot. 

It belongs to friends of mine who are trying to sell it. They have been relocated back down south, to my joy as they are now 1 hour up the road instead of 7, and are selling this beautiful house as they won't be going back.

So, knowing that it is in Vendée how much do you think it's worth? Well, it's on sale at €383,250 including agency fees. Amazing, compared with prices down here. If I wanted to spend that here I'd get something like this - 980m² land, 91m² habitable, 4 bedrooms with horrible old tiles and kitchen. It does have a pool though, which, being down south, is a cool thing to have.

One pays a high price for sunshine and proximity to the Mediterranean. Even the prices here have not suffered too much during the recession and people selling their crappy 30-yr old ugly dumps smile smugly and tell you that you are buying their wonderful house which needs nothing doing to it in a much sought-after area so of course that's why the prices are so high. When you look around, all you want to do is pull the whole lot down and start again, which is what one guy near here did, but at a price, natch.

Anyway, if you know of anyone looking for a beautiful stone mas near the Atlantic coast who does not want to renovate, but move straight in, pass on the word about my friends' place. Local village colour guaranteed!

Erratum: Apparently south Vendée does NOT rain all the time, it's got a nifty little micro-climate which guarantees similar weather to the Riviera! I didn't know that either! Read all about it here!