Where can I find France's €1 homes?

Local France

9 hours ago

There's been widespread reporting on the '€1 homes' on sale in Italy, while Spain has also offered some similar schemes - both have the same aim; to encourage people to move to remote and under-populated regions and renovate old, derelict houses.
While France doesn't have quite the same problems as its neighbours, there are areas that suffer from population drain, and some have begun offering €1 homes or other inducements to people to move there.
Where are these schemes?
In short - remote areas, you won't be finding a €1 home in Paris, the Alps or the Riviera.
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As with Spain and Italy, the types of towns or villages that offer these are in under-populated areas. These tend to be in central France, the so-called 'empty middle' in sparsely populated départements such as Cantal, Creuse, Corrèze and Lozère.
It's not only central France, however, the
most recently announced scheme
is in the town of Ambert in the mountainous département of Puy-de-Dôme in eastern France. Meanwhile several communes in the northern region of Hauts-de-France have offered a scheme where
they give €5,000
to anyone who buys a home there.
They tend to be in either villages or small towns that are a long way from the nearest major urban centre - so you will almost certainly need a car and you need to be unfazed by isolation, especially in the winter.
Who are they for?
In most cases the vendors of the €1 homes are the local authorities - although in some cases local authorities offer cash grants to people buying from private sellers.
As you would expect from something paid for with public money, they come with strings attached.
The exact conditions vary but the schemes are often restricted to first-time buyers and you will generally need to sign an agreement to stay there for a certain period of time, and sometimes also commit to making necessary repairs.
You must also commit to living there full time - these offers are not open to second-home owners, or people who want to rent out the property to tourists.
There is no stipulation that you must be French, although these types of arrangements tend to involve complicated legal agreements, so this probably isn't suitable for people who don't speak good French.
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Even if you don't qualify for the €1 homes, they are a good indicator of areas where property is likely to be cheap.
Are they really just €1?
The purchase price is indeed €1, and that's also good news for the
notaire
fee (property buyer's tax), which is
calculated as a percentage
of the purchase price.
But it's understood that these homes are generally not in good repair, and will need a significant budget for renovation.
That's the case with most of the €1 home schemes around Europe, the properties on offer are usually old and either dilapidated or downright derelict.
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But the French schemes tend to be a bit more formal and often in exchange for either a €1 home or grants and funding from local authorities you will have to sign an agreement to undertake certain works within a set time period. This can actually be helpful, as at least it gives you an idea upfront of what renovation budget you need, but this cannot be attempted by anyone who genuinely only has €1 to spend.
Things to watch out for
Properties of this type tend to be sold 'as seen', which makes it harder to back out if you later discover a major flaw.
While property surveys are not common in France they're definitely recommended for this type of property in case there are major structural issues such as subsidence.
If the property is very old and hasn't been renovated for some time it's likely that things such as electricity will no longer be up to the required code standard.
Check whether the property has a septic tank - a lot of rural French properties do - if the tank is old it's likely that it won't conform to
new standards introduced in 2012
, which means you will need to get a new one, at a cost of roughly €10,000.
Also check whether you are in a conservation area or are covered by specific building codes such as the Loi Montagne - these can restrict the type of works you can do, and make things more expensive. The
mairie
should be able to tell you about local rules and standards.
READ ALSO
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Tips for renovating French property: 'Double your budget and make friends with the mayor'✎
OK, so where can I find the €1 properties?
Unfortunately, there isn't a national database of €1 homes. They don't tend to make a splash in national media either, although local press will often report on them.
The best place to look is local authority websites or Facebook pages - this will, however, be a long and tedious job of sifting through a lot of irrelevant village news before you find anything.
But nothing worth having ever came easy!