French revolt as 'British invasion' drives up property prices
By Kim Willsher in Paris.
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Breton villages protested yesterday against an "invasion" of Britons blamed for pushing up property prices and forcing out locals.Around 100 people took to the streets of Bourbriac and called on all "proud French natives" to express their anger at "colonisation".
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They demanded more low-cost housing, criticised estate agents for "market speculation" and set fireto piles of property magazines.The protest was part of a growing backlash against the increasing number of Britons moving to rural France.
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It came six months after hostility to settlers erupted with "Brits out" and "Anglais integres, oui. Colons, non!" [Integrated English, yes. Colonisers, no!] slogans daubed on walls in the village near the Armor coast.Bourbriac is now home to about 700 Britons, 100 Germans and Dutch, among a French population of 1,200.Maiwenne Salomon, one of the protest organisers, said the demonstration was not racist or xenophobic.
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"Our problem is not with the British in general, it's with the people who arrive here, who don't speak French, who don't mix, don't take part in the life of the community and who create Anglo-Saxon ghettos where they keep them selves tothemselves," she said.
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"It's been complete madness over the last few years with foreigners, particularly the Anglo-Saxons, arriving in incredible numbers."The result of this has been that property prices have rocketed in the whole of Britanny and Bretons themselves can't find anywhere to live, whether it's to rent or to buy."She said that the cost of buying a home had risen by up to 600 per cent.
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Still talking in francs, rather than euros, Mrs Salomon, added: "You used to be able to buy a small house which needed some work on it for around 50,000 francs [£5,000]. Now it's impossible to find anything - even if it needs completely renovating - for less than 300,000."This has had a knock-on effect on properties for rent. Even if you could find somewhere, the monthly rent is far too high for most ordinary families to pay.
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"I've got friends living in caravans because they can't afford to live anywhere else."Flysheets advertising the demonstration, distributed by a Breton nationalist organisation calling itself the Trégor-Golelo Group demanded an end to property speculation. "Housing for Bretons, not for settlers," it proclaimed.
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"Those of us in the most precarious situation - the young, the badly paid - are suffering the worst.
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We know that this explosion in the property market is linked to two factors. Firstly there is the massive arrival of the rich and well-to-do from England, France and elsewhere.
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"Secondly we are well aware that the estate agents and solicitors are doing everything to persuade us to sell up and they continue to advertise across the Channel to keep filling their pockets."The organisation called for a series of measures, one of them that local authorities should exercise their right to buy properties at a fixed price and resell them to locals. Its criticism was not confined to foreigners and it called for measures to stop "our compatriots selling our country for profit".
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"We have to make them aware of the social consequences of what they are doing when they sell at mind-blowing prices to those who neither live nor work here."
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A census last year showed that about 100,000 Britons live in France. This figure does not include children or those owning holiday homes.
Telegraph Group Limited. Via DY Distribution.
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