Property case study

A new lease of life

JEREMY & LIZ SMITH

They say life begins at 40, but for Liz and Jeremy Smith their new life in France began when he turned 50. Living in Colchester, in the UK, the couple had two children and were working as French secondary school teachers.

“To be honest I hit the age of 50 and thought it was time for something different. We had both gotten fed up of our jobs and both our children were leaving home, one to go to university and the other had bought a house with his girlfriend,” recalls Jeremy.

The Smiths had holidayed in the Dordogne a lot but had never been to the Charente region, but when they saw an advert for a course for people thinking of running a rental property in France they headed south-west. In April 2004 after only three days in the area, they found a large property in the small market town of Chalais, not far from Angoulême airport, and decided to go for it.

Originally they were going to look for a small rural house “in the sticks” and do it up, but this was a large house in the middle of town with a big garden and cost €588,000. However, the fact it was already a fully functional business with a number of attached gîtes (small cottages or apartments) that could be rented out would make the transition a lot easier.

After ditching their teaching positions they moved down in September 2004, and now live in the main “maison de maître” most of the year. In the peak summer months they rent it out and move to a house about 10 miles out of town. Jeremy reports that the buying process went very smoothly, and they encountered none of the infamous French red tape.

The pair financed the property with a French mortgage, and found that they did not have to take on any other work because the rental income supported them throughout the year.

At first they did find that the original owners had over-exaggerated the rental potential, but through advertising and a new website they have been kept booked up and haven’t yet seen any impact from the global recession, although they have not raised their prices in sterling this year.

Integrating into the community took a while, and Jeremy points out that the French are more formal and withdrawn than the English, but he has worked on the local tourist board and last spring the mayor asked him to run for the local council. While he didn’t get elected, he got to meet a lot more people.

“We are glad we tried it,” says Jeremy, “and we always thought if it doesn’t work out we can go back to England, but we are enjoying life here.”
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