News from the Aude

20/01/2010 GBP/EUR 1.1506 25/01/2010 GBP/EYR 1.1415 26/01/2010 GBP/EUR 1.1535 27/01/2010 GBP/EUR 1.1499 01/02/2010 GBP/EUR 1.1445 02/02/2010 GBP/EUR 1.1434

20/01/2010 sunny partial cloud, 10°, actually correct but 11° 21/01/2010 sunny 13° 22/01/2010 sunny with scattered showers 11° 23/01/2010 sunny with scatter showers 9° 01/02/2010 Sunny 9° 02/02/2010 sunny 12°

Further to my article about T Breaks and LD Lines it seems the prices just got even more reasonable and an even better chance to give them a try! TBreaks is an agency working exlusively with LD Lines and Transmanche Ferries. We charge the same prices as LD Lines and the cost is the same by booking online or by telephone. We can offer frequent travellers a 5% discount off the scheduled fares but this can only be obtained online at the following address www.tbreaks.com/5pc where thre price of the crossing includes a 5% discount.

What a nice way to start 2010! I was due to return to the UK on the 18th of December but you might of noticed the snow was widespread throughout Europe and even in Carcassonne we had a few flakes, needless to say this cancelled my flight and obviously has a knock on effect as some of you might have experienced. I was due to take the ferry back on the Saturday morning and this was now impossible and Dover was virtually gridlocked, I called the number on the ferry documentation for the LD Lines company and spoke to T Breaks who do the administration work for LD Lines and explained my sitaution, I was able to easily and without any fuss rebook my ferry. What a great company! I have used them several times before and now use them all the time, great prices, great boats and great service they certainly seem to be setting the standards for Cross Channel Ferries so I'd like to wish LD Lines, T Breaks and especially Mike from T breaks and Happy and propserous 2010

Here are the exchange rate update for today Wednesday 09/12/09. GBP/EUR 1.1066 GBP/USD 1.6322 EUR/USD 1.4749 GBP/AED 5.9946 EUR/AED 5.4178 GBP/ZAR 12.3203 EUR/ZAR 11.1351 GBP/CHF 1.6716 EUR/CHF 1.5108

Recently I have seen a good number of clients wanting to buy in Languedoc but have been set back from doing so because of the current strength of the euro against the pound. A way to compensate for this is to take an interest only mortgage in Euros and wait for the pound to increase in value and then transfer the sterling to your French bank account and either pay off the mortgage entirely or leave a lump sum in your bank account. One of my clients this week is looking at purchasing a large house in Carcassonne and renting half of the property out to cover an interest only mortgage and improve the other half of the property over the coming months, this would leave him free to come and go as he likes or maybe take a year or two to learn French and enjoy the French way of life without having to stress over the mortgage repayments. Reading recent reports in the press and talking to clients it seems that property prices are on the rise and people don't want to miss the boat. FNAIM have quoted a property price increase and personally I would agree, the second half of 2009 has seen client visits and property sales back on par with what they were before the credit crunch and the banks and still cautious to lend but with a good deposit and income figures lend they will and the rates are low to boot. For details of mortgages and or foreign exchange companies please contact us for assistance and we'll do all we can to help you.

After months of waiting patiently for my TV debut to be aired it finally happened on the 25th October! I think the end result was worth the wait and although lots of the filming was cut the directors got some excellent footage of Carcassonne, Limoux and the surrounding area which looked stunning…….Enjoy!

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Ryanair has recently opened 3 new destinations from Carcassonne airport. Now you can fly to and from Carcassonne from Bournemouth, Cork and Frankfurt. The airport is making changes to accommodate the increase in volume of passengers and is starting to get busy and if you visit Limoux or Carcassonne you will see a lot of tourists already packing the cafes and restaurants giving the place a real vibrant buzz. This will increase as people flock to La cite to enjoy the music festivals and concerts in June and July and if you're coming don't forget your shorts and sun tan lotion as the weather's turned really hot already.

Did anyone heed my words of wisdom and buy Euros? If you did well done, I spoke to a client who is signing for his house next week and he's not to wet behind the ears and has been playing the market and netted himself a £4000.00 profit;so well done Mr. F from Mayfair! Now as I said before serious sellers are getting serious and I have seen some serious price reductions on 3 fantastic houses around the Limoux area these are of course on the website and are references 3559089, 3266405, 1396751 or click on the links or copy and paste them to your web browser.

http://www.simplylanguedocproperties.com/details_houses.php?id=3577953

http://www.simplylanguedocproperties.com/details_houses.php?id=3266405

http://www.simplylanguedocproperties.com/details_houses.php?id=1396751

These are amazing price reductions, the first 2 properties have excellant rental potential and the 3rd property does need renovation but lends itself to an excellant commercial venture for weddings or equestrian holidays.

Could I mention the word serious again? I don't seriously think so!

Obviously there's no credit crunch in Carcassonne as the town is getting the place ready, as it did last year with the ice skating rink and big wheel and toboggans, bouncy castles, hot chestnuts etc. etc. We took the children last year and we all had an incredible time, I'm not sure who enjoyed it most. Anyway much of the same this year and so we can do our xmas shopping in one foul swoop while the kids get an enjoyable afternoon out as well. I can strongly recommend you visit, and if you're in England why not fly over to Carcassonne and do you're Christmas shopping here? Make a weekend out of it, you can probably book a plane ticket and get here cheaper than going to London for the day and without the Crowds..............GO on treat yourself!

What should you be doing right now if you want to buy property in France? Are prices rising, falling or stabilising? Or should we just stick our finger up and try and decide which way the winds blowing. Having looked at the market long and hard and scratched my head a lot I think I have concluded that serious buyers can strike serious deals with serious buyers. Prices have reduced in most cases and now the adjustment in prices seems very much more realistic and the serious sellers are being more than reasonable. Do you wait a bit more? do you take the gamble on sterling rising against the Euro or do you waste your chance and curse your luck the moment the Pound reaches parity with the euro and any advantage you had has just been negated!! I had a client back in August whi had sold up in England and was renting, waiting for the dream house to come along, cash in the bank and in no immediate rush who would blame them. I called them when a new suitable house became available and he informed me that his money had been frozen as it was invested in an Icelandic bank and they could not withdraw there life savings. If this wasn't bad enough the calculation on the exchange rate fell from approx 1.34 to 1.20 reducing his purchasing power by a further 28000.00 euros. Interestingly a large amount of hits on the website are coming from the United States and with the Dollar back to a very good exchange rate it seems the Americans are going to be investing and realising their dreams of owning a house in Europe, it couldn't be a better time for them to buy property.

Last Thursday we had one of our properties featured in the Irish times. It's called take 5 where the Times compares 5 houses from around the world at a very similar price.

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Please have a look at the changes we have made to the website. You can now search more easily as you have more criteria boxes so you can search on number of rooms and garden size !Happy hunting

Topsy, turvey times indeed! According to the media we're in a recession it's more or less official, well the U.K. is anyway. Here in France we haven't really been affected or at least not that you'd notice in fact we are getting people with lots of money. I suppose in uncertain times people who have their house for sale could be very tempted to accept offers that they wouldn't normally entertain, I suppose everything has a knock-on effect, what goes up, must come down etc.etc. We're actually all lined up for half term weekend and we're going to be busy and this week has already seen a good few clients. Having been following the news and the turbulent times followed by the weather report I can't think of many good reasons to stay in the U.K.

Although the summer was a little bit slow and it usually is! Some vendors have really taken the initiative to kick start the market by really pricing their properties realistically or reducing the price of the properry to make it very attractive. My top 3 this week can be viewed by clicking the link or on our website www.simplylanguedocproperties.com.

3374837

1975797

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