The price is right

Wondering how far your budget will stretch in some of France’s most popular departments? This price comparison should help you out, says Hannah Evans

- Hannah Evans

Morbihan, Manche, Dordogne, Charente. What do they all have in common? Well aside from beautiful countryside, picture-perfect villages, affordable property and great links to the UK, they also happen to be the most popular departments among Brits – for precisely those reasons.

Our online property portal, FrancePropertyShop.com, receives hundreds of thousands of searches each month, and perhaps it comes as no surprise that properties in departments 16, 24, 50 and 56 are the most commonly searched, with Dordogne pulling in the most interest from house-hunters.

“But I want to live somewhere that’s less popular and not overrun by expats,” I hear you say. This is a valid point and expat hubs such as the beautiful bastide of Eymet in Dordogne won’t appeal to everyone. However, these four most-searched departments are still teeming with rural villages and overwhelmingly French towns.

Not to mention the fact that the number of empty houses in France continues to rise, with a recorded 2.8 million uninhabited properties five years ago, mostly in rural areas. There is no shortage of properties for Brits, even in the most sought-after locations.

Though these departments are relatively affordable, here’s a selection of properties across all four at price points of €100,000, €500,000, and €1m, to demonstrate what your money could get you.

DORDOGNE: €104,500

This property will no doubt tick many boxes for a lot of British property-hunters: a traditional stone house close to a small Dordogne village with shops and a bakery, and an attractive price to top it off.