The French connection

Published 06th Jul 2007

Why live in Devon when you can commute easily from Gascony, says Susan Emmett

AFTER SIX years in which he spent at least ten hours a week travelling between his home in Dartmouth and job in London, Mark Wilkins decided to make his life easier by commuting to southern France instead. “I was getting tired and irritable.

A good journey lasted three hours but on average it was over four hours. On a bad night it could take for ever.” Having driven all the way down to Devon, Wilkins would arrive home exhausted.

By contrast the journey between his Wimbledon office and country home near Bordeaux takes five and a half hours door to door. “There is not a lot of difference in time and the journey is a lot less stressful. It’s a short hop to Gatwick and then it’s in somebody else’s hands.”

Cheap and plentiful flights between Britain and the smallest of airports on the Continent have allowed a growing number of people to hold on to their UK jobs yet live the dream of a rural life in France. Faced with expensive and unreliable train journeys in Britain, tailbacks on the M4 and expensive petrol, many conclude that a home abroad is now far more attractive than a second home in Britain.

• “France has given us buying power. We couldn’t find anything that was anywhere close to this in the UK,” says Wilkins. “Flights cost me between £80 and £120 each way, which is not far off a tank of petrol, depending on what you are driving. I was spending about £65 to fill up my Volvo.”

He shares his manor house in Gascony with his fiancée, Amy Browning. The property is surrounded by ten acres and comes with a swimming pool and an outhouse that they let as a holiday home. Similar farmhouses near by cost from about €695,000 (£469,000).

Wilkins divides his time between France and London, where he runs Ideas Factory, an advertising and design agency. The couple’s other project is Domus France, a property-buying agency, which Amy runs from home. It is a world away from their home in Dartmouth, which they bought as a wreck in 2000. “We were only looking for a holiday flat but ended up buying a Grade II listed four-storey Victorian house with a shop on the ground floor.” The couple renovated the building and sold the first-floor flat plus the freehold to the shop.

They kept the top floors as a flat for themselves. But after their move to France, they plan to let it as a holiday home.
So what are the downsides? “I miss a pint of ale,” says Wilkins. “But I now have Armagnac. It was a case of falling in love with the property and this part of the world.

Gascony is very rural and very remote. Walking around the garden, you are a million miles from London but home is definitely France. It’s our first proper house with a garden. We have a couple of cats and two Gordon setters on order. I want to get chickens and have the whole country life.”

CREAM TEA OR CROISSANT?
WEST COUNTRY
You can drive down and, if you plan the journey well, it can take less than five hours. Or you can take the train from Paddington to Exeter (two hours) and drive from there.

Either option avoids stress from delayed or cancelled flights and the hassle of increased security measures at the airport. Oh, and you will cause less damage to the environment.

You can do well out of increasing property prices. Some areas, such as Dartmouth, Kingsbridge and Salcombe, are experiencing property booms, according to Ed Sugden, of Property Vision South West.

There is no language barrier and buyers don’t have to deal with the French legal system and pay onerous wealth taxes. Stamp duty might be a hefty 4 per cent on property worth more than £500,000, but the full cost of buying is about 5 per cent in the UK compared with about 7.5 per cent in France.

You can find good, familiar food and a nice pint in the local pub. The West Country is fast becoming a foodie haven with many new restaurants opening up that make good use of fabulous local produce.

FRANCE
Flights are relatively cheap and easy. There are 19 flights a day to Nice from London’s airports, mostly with easyJet and BA. A return ticket can cost as little as £75 and the flight takes less than two hours.

The South of France is not just a holiday destination. “There are a lot of people buying in the South of France who need to commute here,” says Stuart Baldock of Property Vision buying agents.

The standard of education in France is a draw. “There are families who come to take advantage of schools,” says Baldock. The weather can be more reliable than in the UK.

According to French statistics you get 315 days of sunshine a year in the Côte d’Azur compared with 80 days in London.
You can live well for less. A reasonable lunch with half a bottle of rosé costs €20 (£13.50). But taxes are high.
Owners of an unmortgaged property worth €760,000 or more have to pay an annual wealth tax of about 1 per cent.

It’s worth repeating that it costs more to buy property in France than in Britain. You can expect to pay about 7.5 per cent of the value of the property in fees if you buy there.

Source: ' Times Online '

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