It’s hard to believe that these are small lane houses mostly inhabited by little old Chinese men and women. The rents charged to foreigners is staggering. Granted, these renovated flats are considerably nicer than those the locals inhabit bit the difference in rent is out of proportion to the difference in standards.
Yesterday I was poking about around Cite de Bourgogne and a man stopped me and asked whether I would like to look at a property which was nearing completion, having been renovated. I told him I wasn’t looking for a new house but he insisted and soon the owner rocked up on his email with the key.
It was a ground floor apartment with a bedroom on a mezzanine floor. It had a very small yard and the interior looked pretty good. Altogether a very pleasant place to live. I have a friend who is looking for a new apartment so I asked the price for him eventhough I knew it would be out of his price range.
The flat, cannot be more than 60 sqm (even counting the mezz floor) and he wanted £1,300 per month for it. I am paying £500 for a 55sqm lane house and I know it’s almost impossible to get anything that cheap any longer but to charge nearly three times that amount for something that size is optimistic to say the least.
For that price you can get a new flat without cockroaches or rats whereas there will no doubt be plenty of these visitors in Cite de Bourgogne. Maybe there is a premium to pay for living in such a well known relic of colonial days but it’s a bit too rich for all but the most patriotic corporate fat cat French expat.