That is certainly a factor in FR. In Normandy it is clearly ‘The Paris Effect’
The agent who is handling my purchase said that they are extremely busy. I found, myself, houses being sold from right under my nose or vanishing from my faves list, chop-chop.
@Lauren_Red, be aware that Spain does not ‘do’ small towns and villages in the same way as FR and UK.
As @sunnilife says “Spain is much cheaper generally. Train and bus services are excellent and cheap and the health service is good. The people are great and the tapas culture is brill.” That is a good precis of Spain.
He mentioned a magic word, “green”. How blissful it has been to be somewhere where green exists. Truly, a balm to the soul, I find.
I find there is a profound difference tho’. In Spain, after all the rigmarole with ‘papeles’ and queueing and getting to sit at a desk only to be told “falta un papel” [“there’s a form missing”], if your bits are all present and correct you go away with the residency card/empadremento/Certificado de Responsibildad Typo II/permit to park a skip in your hand that very moment.
Here in FR I waited 4 months 8 days for my Carte Vital and it’s over 4 month and counting for my CdS. Two months in to the wait for the C.V. I got a request from an office in Le Mans for a mug shot and a signature. I could have given them that at my original r.v at CPAM St Lo.
€70k does seem rather small, as a budget for what you seem to want, where you want it. I have found, in rural, provincial Normandy, that places at that price need more work than mere ‘refreshing’. I have been extremely fortunate to buy a place that is absolutely plain vanilla, in a town with no pretentions to be anything other than an ordinary French provincial town.
In this case and with my flat in VLC, the sellers were under pressure to sell. Sheer luck to being at the right place at the right time.
Non-meat eaters defo have a more difficult time in SP. The uproar when a SP minister dared hint that the Spanish should maybe cut back on the amount of ham they eat!
It’s an old joke but stll a good one
Diner “I am vegetarian. I don’t eat meat. I would like an omlette, please”
Waiter “Si, senorita, one om-a-lette.”
Diner “Waiter! There’s meat in this omlette!”
Waiter “Noooo senorita! – is no meat. Is ‘am!”