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International Living Magazine has put France top of its Quality of Life Index, something which could make it even more popular among potential investors.

France was awarded top spot in the list ahead of other popular locations such as Australia and the US.

Eleanor O'Kane, editor of Living France magazine, believes that the lifestyle on offer combined with value for money property has contributed to the country's success.

"The most popular area at the moment is Creuse - department number 23 -
in Limousin. This is because despite it being rural, it is easily
accessible and the property is reasonably priced," she remarked.

The news comes after primelocation.com reported that, in November, they
were experiencing similar levels of international property searches as
before the economic crisis.

According to the property website, searches for international property
in France took up 29 per cent of its total search volume that month
with Spain the only country proving more popular.

The pressure on the Euro has become immense since Greece was downgraded and the Eurozone refused to step in to help. Traders fear a Lehman Brothers type scenario where Greece defaults on its debt and Portugal, Spain and Ireland are forced to follow suit as the carpet is pulled beneath them.

A report in the telegraph over the weekend suggest the European Central Bank (ECB) are preparing legal ground in the event a Euro member tried to leave the Eurozone breaks up following the Greek crisis.

The fact that EURUSD has fallen over 7.0% since December will not worry the ECB one little bit. They have been attempting to talk the euro down for most of last year to help their exporters pull the Eurozone from recession.

The pound on the other hand has had a great weekend. December CPI inflation data released Monday was 2.9%, much higher than the Bank of England 2.0% target and very close to the number which requires BoE Governor Mervyn King to write a letter of explanation to Chancellor Alistair Darling. This was the largest one-month rise since April 1991.

The next number to surprise to the upside was UK December unemployment which fell by 15.2k, the second consecutive monthly decline.

Euro buyers have therefore been presented with the best levels to buy in 4-months after a 4.5% bounce since last week.

NEWS or noise? Over the last few days there have been a number of articles from various sources in the press that French property prices are on the rise.

An article today on Capital.fr claims that although asking prices were down by 0.4% in October vendors are tending to demand increasingly higher asking prices for new instructions. 

Another article published today by the move channel , a popular UK property portal, states that prices are now 2.8% higher than they were in April 2009. The source of these figures is the FNAIM, the French Institue of Estate Agents. They believe there is good reason to be optimistic and look forward to a more stable French property market in 2010.

According to Athena Mortgages, there was a 14% increase in mortgage completions in the third quarter compared to the previous.

However, both the dollar and the British pound have taken a hammering recently against the mighty Euro. In the last week, however, sterling has come back fighting but just can't seem to hold its position.

The Euro is closely correlated with risk so when investors are feeling gloomy and risk appetite is on the wane then the Euro tends to suffer a lot more than the pound. This was reflected in the 4% fall in the US Dow Jones and UK FTSE stock indexes and the 4% rise in sterling.  

The FTSE has bounced almost 2% already this morning and surprise, surprise sterling has dropped the same amount from the highs. So this week although the ECB rate announcement is the obvious focus, the stock markets hold the key.

A fall to €1.09 is likely in the next few days, but this doesn’t prevent another assault on €1.12+ levels later on.

Let's see. 

ACCORDING to an article on Capital.fr this morning, the buyers are back. In the third quarter, the volume of property sold in France rose by 14% over the same period last year, according to Century 21,  a direct result of  a slowdown in declining property prices.

"We have passed the low point. While prices fell 10% in the first half, the decline should be limited to 6% throughout the year, "said Laurent Vimont, head of the network. However, this average hides significant local variations. In many regions, the market has not yet recovered and further adjustments are thought to be on the way.

The French property market in recovery:

The Paris property market has rebounded somewhat. "The price decline of 8% in the first half seems to have been sufficient to redress the sales," says Laurent Vimont, head of Century 21. Figures indicate that the number of transactions increased 29% in the third quarter. 

The regions that are still sick:

In many cities where transactions continue to decline, prices will, however, continue to decline. With sales down 18% year on year, the Centre is the region worse off ... just before the Limousin (-16%). The housing market remains frozen in Marseilles, too, which shows sales are down 11%, which should logically require sellers to review their asking prices downwards. To a lesser extent, Brittany could face further turmoil: during the last twelve months, prices are already down 11% in the region.

In the same article is a map of France with the price change per square metre on last year. The Dordogne is down 5.8% on last year at 2,007 euros per square metre.

Elsewhere it was resported today that consumer confidence is in the rise in France.

All we need now is for the GBP/EUR exchange rate to reover to even 1.14 or 1.15 to really open the flood gates ahead of Prime Minister Brown's expected winter of discontent.

BRITISH and Irish people have the worst quality of life in Europe, according to a new report featured in The Telegraph (UK).

France and Spain hold the top positions.

The report analyses 10 countries based on 17 comparative benchmarks such as the price of utilities, food and drink and the quality of services such as health and education. It even takes work conditions and weather into account.

The top three countries are France, Spain and Denmark. Sweden, Ireland and Britain coming eighth, ninth and tenth respectively.

See the full story in The Telegraph.