Holiday homes in the Charente, large houses with swimming pools to rent in the Charente, last minute deals, country cottages to rent in the French countryside.

It would be safe to say that by the time the property crash and credit crunch came along the writing on the wall had long since dried for many Brits renting holiday homes in the Charente. Those who had bought large houses hadn't considered the fact that large parties normally only travel during the school holidays and that there is virtually zero demand outside of the peak season.

HOLIDAY HOMES IN THE CHARENTE

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Many Expats had financed their properties based on renting their holiday homes out for rental periods that hadn't been achieved in decades; due to the fact that so many Brits were now muscling in on the market. Having been caught out by this simple fact, many were becoming estate agents and persuading fellow Brits to do exactly the same thing. Gamekeeper turned poacher it would seem.

LARGE HOUSES WITH SWIMMING POOLS TO RENT IN THE CHARENTE

France One Call members; most of whom had been letting for decades were only too aware that something was going to have to give. Doing better than most but not as well as they would have liked, many were in sensed by the quality of some of the properties that new arrivals were offering and advertising as quality accommodation.

Expats who had purchased their properties in the nineteen eighties and nineties had had their pick of magnificent old Manors and farmhouses that no one wanted. The French at that time had not realised the potential behind taking a crop of old stone outbuildings and turning them into Gite complexes. However, the Brits that had arrived in the last decade, mesmerised by the stunning scenery had been prepared to buy up any ugly old building in any location because they had not been able to grasp the fundamentals.

LAST MINUTE DEALS

These new carpetbaggers, (as the more established expats called them) simply looked at a building, counted how many people it could accommodate and decided they could buy it and let it. Holidaymakers coming to the Charente for the first time may have been satisfied but holidaymakers who had been coming for years and staying in marvellous accommodation were severely disappointed. Untold damage was being done to the self-catering holiday home market that was going to have dire affects for years to come.

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By 2005 and long before the credit crunch or property crash hit, Expats who had moved to the Charente were beginning to sell up and move back to the UK. Many of them, although they had failed to earn a living out of letting holiday homes made a killing by selling their now renovated properties onto other unsuspecting Brits who were still keen to move to France.

COUNTRY COTTAGES TO RENT IN THE FRENCH COUNTRYSIDE

These people are the final wave that came over and paid top dollar for inadequately renovated properties on the promise that they could earn a fine living out of renting Gites. In fact these are mostly the people who find themselves stuck in the Charente and Dordogne right now and unable to move back to the relative safety of the UK.

Having paid too much for their Charentaise property and now having to deal with the falling pound, many Expats have not just found their dream of a life in the Charente in tatters but most find themselves stuck there and unable to make a living or sell their property.

Letting their holiday home for a reasonable figure has become increasingly difficult, those that became estate agents have now found the gold seam has played out. Likewise with Brits who overnight became builders have found the work has dried up and the wannabe France One Call have found that having to deal with complaints and unable to generate advertising revenue is no fun at all.

Holiday home owners who moved to the Charente more than a decade ago tend to be in a much stronger position. They didn't pay over the odds for their properties and as many are members of France One Call their bookings have remained fairly strong. They no they just have to wait for the tide to turn and watch many of the Johnny come lately's return from whence they came.

This situation is by no means confined to the Charente - things have been worse in many ways in North west France where Brits who for some reason seem to be mostly northerners have come up against all sorts of problems when it has come to offering holiday cottages in Brittany.

Holiday homes in the Charente, large houses with swimming pools to rent in the Charente, last minute deals, country cottages to rent in the French countryside.