Gite rental. Is the market shrinking?

I have a self catering gite that I rent out for holidays, and long term lets for house buyers who are looking to buy in the region of Creuse, Limousin, Central France. I decided to buy a cottage in France to provide a house and future debt free investment for when my son leaves school.

The price of housing even with the "credit crunch and financial melt down" is far beyond many people's budget in Britain and in a effort to buy their first home many people have saddled themselves with huge debts. This is not what I wanted to happen to my son so I sold my house and bought a cottage in France. We had planned to rent it out to holiday makers to help pay the bills and provide a ready made business for our son when he leaves school. The house is in a very rural farming area and jobs for school leavers and young people in France are very scarce.

The problem with setting up gite for renting out for holidays is that many other people have same idea. Finding a job and or working self employed in France can be a bit of a problem and so they rent their houses out to visitors to provide an income.

This intern leads to another problem. Some of the visitors to the area see that it is just what they are looking for and buy a house in the region. They later decide to sell up in their native country (many Dutch, German and Belgians also have the same idea) and move to France with the intention of renting out their house to the holiday makers. Eventually the region will become saturated and many people who rely on the gite for a living will struggle.

So if you have decided to come and live in France then perhaps running a gite is not such a good prospect at the moment. I am lucky because I have no mortgage to pay for and bought my house as a future investment for when my son leaves school. I would not have been able to do the same thing back in Britain because of the high cost of buying and owning a house.

In my opinion the answer to the question 'Is the market shrinking?' is yes and will continue to get worse the longer the credit crunch lasts and the higher the cost of living continues to rise.

Take care and good luck.