Moving to France

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This site has a series of pages about buying property and living in France. If you have come here directly from a search engine, you may want to read them in order. Click for the first page about French property. To see the whole site at a glance, visit our site map

If you are thinking of moving to France, may we suggest that you print this page off? It may well change your future... for the better.

moving to france
So you want to move to France? Forget for a moment the wildflowers, the wine and the golden sands. These are all true, but so too is the seriousness of the step that you are considering. The British Medical Council publishes a table which allows you to measure the amount of stress you have suffered during the past year. It lists various events, such as illness, moving house, changing a job and so on. These are given points. You tot up the points to see whether you are near the danger level. Changing a lifestyle, a culture and a country takes you right up to the danger line. You can't afford to make any mistakes.

That this is more than just theory was borne out to me when I worked selling French property. I was appalled at the failure rate among people who moved to France with the intention of living there permanently, and yet returned home within two years. It was about half. Makes Russian Roulette seem quite safe. To understand why this happened, I did a survey of over a hundred of British ex-patriates living in France to find out what could and had gone wrong.  My fifty point questionnaire turned up much that could have been predicted, such as too-often incompetent (and sometimes crooked) estate agents. In a sea as rich as this, sharks are to be expected. My survey also turned up thirteen reefs that have claimed victim after victim and caused untold misery and expense. Some of these that I've mentioned already in these pages are the four to do with buying property: These are:.

  • Underestimating renovation costs. 

  • Buying with the wrong legal entity. 

  • Not putting the correct suspensive clauses in the sales agreement (example, not saying you intend to use the property for business)

  •  Buying an isolated house and therefore having a very limited social life. 

(Four of the others were to do with working in France, which I will talk about more further on). I also came up with a series of recommendations for those wishing to move to France. The most popular (all but one of the respondents) was: 

  • Don't buy. Rent first. There are many reasons why it is wisest to try living in France before moving there for good. As I've mentioned, up to half of the 'Brits' who go to live in France will be trying to get out again within two years. A shocking statistic. Renting gives you the chance to look for a house in leisure, not just 'on the fly', at the end of a couple of days' visit. 

Of course, this is information you won't come by at a property-selling fair. Estate agents are salesmen, not free advice centres, so, be careful.....

 
                   
Dear Mr Biggins,
Thank you so much for your two books which I have just finished reading. They were superb! I didn't want them to finish and my husband will be reading them next. We are considering moving to France but will certainly take on board all of your advice.
....... I have read  many books about life in France but yours beats the lot for sheer readability and down-to-earth advice.
Yours sincerely,
Mrs. Kathy Bestwick

Want to know what other reefs to look out for? Save yourself the agony of finding out the hard way. Find out  more about our books  or order them using the Order books link below

This is one of a series of pages on buying French property and living in France, as can be seen from the site map. The next page is Moving to France - renting a house first

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