Increasingly, savy investors have been investigating the advantages of buying into France’s real estate market which has been holding rock steady despite the recent rollercoaster ride suffered by the markets in the United States and Europe. While many market analysts are predicting a protracted slump in these markets, they agree that all signs indicate that the French housing market will continue to remain strong and enjoy solid growth.
As global home prices continue to plunge, prices in France are growing at a steady pace. This growth is possible because demand for homes in France remains strong. Unlike other countries, the French economy has not been affected by the housing crisis and the steady increase of France’s population is due in part to having the highest birth rates in Europe and a rise in immigration. (more…)
Sooner or later, everyone will fall ill and access to good health care can become a matter of life or death. When considering the purchase of real estate in a foreign country, the state of the country’s health care system should be a major concern. Fortunately, France’s health care system is one of the best in the world, ranked #1 by the World Health Organization in 2001.
France offers universal health coverage to every citizen; employees, their spouses and children are covered through their employers and the state covers the unemployed, disabled and retired. Unlike Great Britain’s system, physicians in France are self-employed thus free to provide any treatments they deem necessary, pre-authorization is required by the government and there are no long waiting periods for procedures. (more…)
Education systems vary greatly between countries, and this often factors into the decision when it comes to relocating or investing in a foreign country. A strong educational system means a secure economic future for both the country and its citizens.
France’s educational system, which ranks slightly above the average among the educational systems of the world’s industrialized nations, has a growing emphasis on science and math programs which will give the nation’s children a leading edge in the near future.
School in France is compulsory from the ages of 6 to 16 but nearly all children are enrolled by the age of 3. The country has over 41,000 primary level schools were the student to teacher ratio is 19:1, well below the level of many other countries. (more…)
