Brits trigger Le Price Boom

A surge in the number of Britons buying homes in France has triggered a boom in property prices on the Continent.

Cheap flights and the growing desire of many well-off professionals to escape the rat race have transformed the normally sedate Gallic market.

The regions around airports used by Budget airlines such as Ryanair and easyJet have experienced house price rises of double the French national average of seven per cent.

Last year, Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur, which includes popular destinations such as Nice and Marseille, saw increases of 14 per cent.

The rise in Languedoc-Roussillon, covering Montpellier, Nimes and Carcassonne, was 12 per cent.

And in the Franche-Comte, which is just across the border from Geneva, the increase was 11 per cent.

More than half a million Britons own property in France and the number is growing rapidly.

The population in the Languedoc region is growing at about 1,000 a month, with much of the increase due to an influx of Britons, according to French estate agent Ruda. While the price rises are spectacular by French standards, property on the other side of the Channel is still cheap compared with much of Britain, particularly the South East.

Many families have cashed in on our house price boom by increasing their mortgages in order to buy an idyllic French retreat.

Popular television programmes such as Channel 4's A Place in the Sun have created the impression that homes in France and elsewhere around the globe can be picked up for less than £100,000.

And a significant number of Britons - some inspired by television shows about living abroad - have sold up in the UK and moved to France.

Even the Beckhams have bought a holiday home in the South of France. David and Victoria paid £1.5million this year for a property, with 250 acres of forest and meadow, 20 miles inland from the Cote d'Azur resort of St Raphael.