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I CAME across this very interesting article earlier today and thought some of you would be interested to know how it's done.

Everything in the article flies in the face of results from a recent survey of British travellers carried out by the Bergerac aiport authority. The survery found that holidaymakers in the Dordogne spent an average of £180 pounds per day,

Times are hard. The majority of people have reigned in their spend on luxury items, including holidays abroad.

It's encouraging to know that there are people out there who refuse to be denied their holiday and don't need to compromise their comfort. And I'll bet that it can even be more fun on a smaller budget too.

The writer is an English teacher. I think there's a book here that would walk off the shelves.

I particularly like the name of the blog!

Occupying an enviable position on the edge of a small, Southern Dordogne hill top village this mid 19th century Maison de Maitre, for sale at an asking price of 295,500 euros, is the perfect antidote to the stresses and strains of 21st century living.

Originally the house of a wealthy wine merchant or negotiante the accompanying barns and wine chai which once buzzed with activity still house the wine vats and barrel racks.  Wine was produced at the house as well as being traded with regular shipments onward to Bordeaux.

More recent years have seen the house become a beautiful family home offering an enticing mix of village life and the best that rural France can offer. Although part of a village community the far reaching rural views give a real sense of space with peaceful country walks accessible from the back gate.

The outbuildings now offer flexible and multifunction storage with garages, wood store, workshops and covered social areas all with power and light. It is very rare to find such extensive, original stone built outbuildings in a village setting.

In keeping with the Maison de Maitre style inside the house is well proportioned with many original features carefully preserved during the renovation giving homely living spaces.  The upstairs of the house is light and spacious offering great family accommodation and the enormous boarded out attic with proper staircase is a tempting project waiting to happen!

The commune and village people are and have always been open, friendly and helpful particularly if you support and get involved with the social events and fetes which abound in this part of Perigord.

The church bell has just rang for 7.00pm better stop now and pour a glass of Red from the village vineyard (we wandered up after lunch to stock up unfortunately the rose disappeared over lunch!!)
We often like to sit down by our chickens and watch the colours change on the side of the valley as the sun sets.  The house has about 2200sq metres of land (about half an acre) but there is plenty of agricultural land for sale within easy walking distance of the house should you want to try your hand at smallholding.

THIS summer in the Dordogne has been a scorcher and there's no sign of it ending anytime soon.

If only the property market in the Dordogne was as hot as the weather. We got off to a good start in June. It's no secret that we're heavily dependant on a buoyant UK economy down here. For several consecutive months running up to the start of the summer we watched UK housing price indices rise and indeed June was a good month.

Last month, according to the FNAIM, the Federation of Estate Agents in France, the market stabilised with modest house price rises of around 0.4%. However, they're still sticking to their original pessimistic prediction of price drops between 5 and 10% over the whole of 2009.

We don't need any analyst surveys to tell us about how sluggish the housing market was in August in the Dordogne. There are several reasons for this. Firstly, France shuts down for the holiday season in August. Secondly, the British stayed at home for the holiday season this year and thirdly, Mervyn King, the Governer of the Bank of England, recently broke the news that the UK can look forward to an even longer and more painful recession than previously predicted.

A recent French TV report cited a drop of 30% in the number of British holidaymakers to the Dordogne village of Eymet for this year.

But, that said, there are some very positive signs. Enquiries through our website have spiked and the diary is filling up quickly for September and even early October. Average budgets are up too but we're not too sure yet why that is.

Vendors await September with enthusiasm. It's a time of year generally regarded as the time when the "serious buyers" arrive in the Dordogne.

After a slow summer, vendors continue to be realistic in their expectations and, if they are serious about selling - and, for the most part, they are - then they are ready to negotiate. 

We think we now have most of the right ingredients for a brisk autumn for the property market in the Dordogne but for the Brits, of course, there's one key element missing; the exchange rate. 

After a reasonably long rally to around 1.17 the pound has fallen back quite a bit against the euro and was just over 1.13 at the time of writing. 

We remain optimistic. Let's wait to see how it goes in September.

When selling a property in France any gains arising from its disposal can be subject to capital gains tax (CGT).

The French CGT system purports similarities with the UK CGT collection. For instance, the sale of your main residence will usually not trigger any CGT.

Calculating your capital gain involves deducting the purchase price from the sale price. The estate agent commission, notary fees and, if applicable, the costs of renovation provided that proper receipts have been kept. This simple calculation should give you an approximate figure to assess if any liability to CGT will be triggered.

Although the basic rules are similar, the way CGT itself is calculated in France is somewhat different from its British counterpart. At this stage, it is important to bear in mind that, if you sell within 5 years of the purchase, you will usually not be allowed to deduct the cost of renovation. After 5 years, a taper relief of 10% can be applied each year. This means that no CGT will be paid if the property has been held for 15 years. Other exemptions may apply to a particular sale but to simplify the calculation, the example below will not take these into account.

Example: A property was purchased on 31st July 1999 and sold on 1st April 2009. Capital gain equals to €20,000. Nine full years have passed since the purchase. There are no deductions for the first 5 years and then 10% per year for the next 4 years.

Taxable capital gain = 20,000 – 40% = €12,000

CGT applied to the taxable capital gain is different whether the seller is a French resident or not. In the first instance, a 28.1% tax is levied (from the previous example, CGT would therefore be €3,372). However, non French residents will be subject to a 16% tax (from the previous example, CGT would therefore be €1,920). Capital gain from a property in France may also be taxed in the UKalthough CGT paid in France can be offset.

Residence is also an important element to take into account. Where non French residents sell a property over €150,000, the seller will need to appoint a tax representative.

If a property is sold with furniture and other contents, a list attached to the sale contract proving the existence of such contents is necessary. This document allows the seller to exclude the value of the content from any CGT calculation.

CGT is an important part to consider during the sale of a French property but this is by no means the only element to take into account. It is therefore important to anticipate such operation and the assistance of a specialist certainly helps.

Guillaume Barlet is a French lawyer specialising in French assets and wealth management issues for Bank House Investment Management Limited. Guillaume can be contacted by e-mail or by telephone on 01242 520074.

WHY not swap it for this beautiful chalet on the Costa Blanca in Spain? Holiday home owners who have decided to put their second homes on the market are finding increasingly creative ways in tough economic conditions to market their second homes.

House swapping is not a new concept. The idea first came about in 1953 as a cheap way to holiday. Members of an exchange programme swapped their home with others members, usually in different countries. 

And for holidays, house swapping is still as popular today as it was when it first started over half a century ago.

They say that necessity is the mother of invention and when times are tough it's always interesting to see new ideas and business opportunities take off.

The latest to property markets around the world is the notion of permanently swapping homes.

New businesses and house swapping web sites have mushroomed off the back of the idea that instead of having to come up with the money to buy a house in France, you can simply swap your house with someone who wants, for instance, to move back from France to the UK.

From a legal perspective, everything is exactly the same. There are simply two separate transactions. The swapping process is exactly the same as the buying process except that, in most cases, money never changes hands.

There are, of course, occasions when the process isn't as clear cut and there is an exchange of money such as in the case of a part exchange. In this case there may be a disparity between the price of one property and the other or there is an outstanding debt on one property but not the other.

Premier French Property were recently asked by a client in Finland to market their property as a house swap. 

The idea is simple. Reijo, Kristiina and Triinu Paumo have a very attractive three bedroom, two bathroom Spanish chalet for sale on the Costa Blanca. It's on the market for almost 300,000 euros.

So, it can be bought in the traditional way or swapped with another property.

Reijo explained to us that, ideally, they would like to swap it for a Dordogne property. Their ideal would be a property with surrounding land in a tranquil spot, far from the maddening crowd.

Now all we need to do is find someone with a property in the Dordogne who would like to swap with the Paumo family.

If you're interested and would like more information then please don't hesitate to contact us.