Se rendre au salon de  l’immobilier à Londres nous a donné à voir comment les agents immobiliers en France, sur le terrain, sont perçus. Je vous passe les détails mais il semblerait que certains se satisfassent de « montrer » des maisons. Au point que nos voisins anglo-saxons, parvenant à littéralement effrayer les éventuels acheteurs, ces derniers sont prêts à payer des surcommissions à des personnes s’érigeant en « chasseurs de biens ». Mieux encore, certains chasseurs de biens facturent des frais de dossiers, de défraiement jusqu’à 500€ payables dès le premier contact, ce qui est parfaitement interdit. Pourtant cette profession est tout aussi réglementée que celle plus courante de l’agent immobilier mandaté par le vendeur. L’agence l\’Esprit du Sud se tient à la disposition des ses clients, surtout en l’occurence étrangers, pour de plus amples renseignements.

Well another year and another show. The show was held at Earl’s court rather than Olympia which is an indication that for the second year running the number of exhibitors (mainly estate agents) was down on previous years. Very few independent agents, the same old names with large stands rather hogged the event.

What was evident was the increase in the number of private sellers. We also came across a company offering property finder’s services. This was a real eye opener as the set up and what they say about agents in France is all very worrying. Watch this space as we will cover this topic with a separate blog in due course.

The two days in London also allowed us to meet with our UK partners. We are very pleased and extremely happy with all our partners as I know they are with us. We all look forward to a positive and improving 2011.

Christine and I did not attend any of the workshops as they did not offer anything new to us. We found it more useful talking to the experts directly. One of the interesting conversations we had was with an English solicitor offering their service to UK clients buying in France. Once again we will look into this for you and will be blogging our thoughts as this again is a fee that can be avoided if you do your homework and go through a good agent in France. Please contact us at le sprit du sud if you want to discuss any specifics.

Nous nous préparons à passer une soirée gastronomiqe au Café Joubert en famille. L’agence  l\’Esprit du Sud  qui a de plus en plus de propriétés à proposer dans le secteur du Café y conviera ses clients.

Christine and I will be attending this year’s show at Olympia London next week. Let’s hope we have more luck in getting their as last year we missed out due to the snow.

Lesprit du sud objective will be to:

1.     Meet with our UK partners to prepare for this year

2.     Gauge the atmosphere regarding the number of French and English agents that will be exhibiting

3.     Attend some of the workshops that are being run

We will report back via the blog on our findings

At the end of the final week of the year a beleaguered Sterling limped towards 2011 and managed to steady against the Euro though it remained weak and near seven-week low . After a flat start to the week sterling suffered steep losses on Thursday dropping nearly 2 cents against the single currency throughout the course of the day – traders attributed the losses to little more than year-end related euro/sterling buying. The drop highlights the effects of thin trading which can happen during the festive period

Sterling steadied against the Euro on Friday, helped by a survey showing an unexpected rise in UK house prices and on the back of euro/dollar buying.

Lender Nationwide said UK house prices rose 0.4 percent in December, the first rise since May. This confounded forecasts for a 0.3 percent fall and suggested the property market was not in steep decline as it was in 2008.

Analysts said that despite the data investors remain wary about the fragility of the UK economy and the potential negative impact of the government’s planned austerity measures, which will begin in earnest in 2011.

With trade very thin, however, sterling was driven mainly by movements elsewhere, prodded higher as the dollar came under selling pressure due to reported sovereign buying of the euro against the U.S. currency.

During Prime Minister David Cameron’s New Year’s speech he spelt out that Next year will be “difficult” as the impact of public spending cuts will be felt. But he concluded: “If 2010 was the year we stopped the rot, we can make 2011 the year that Britain gets back on her feet.” Only time will tell for the UK to see whether this is over-optimistic political rhetoric or whether there is some substance to premiership outlook.

For more inforamtion please do not hesitate to contact us at:www.lespritdusud.eu

Source:foremostcurrencygroup