|
Archived Articles
Simeon Mitropolitski is a Canadian analyst, of Bulgarian origin, and a former syndicated columnist with the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA). He is the author of several hundred articles dealing with hot political and economic topics, both national and international.
He was part of the first group of Bulgarian intellectuals and students that began the opposition movement that finally put an end to the communist regime in this country in 1989, and in 1996-1997 participated in international observation teams during the elections in several Balkan countries - Romania, Albania and Bulgaria.
In 2002 Simeon and his family moved from Bulgaria to Canada where they live now in Montreal, province of Quebec. Simeon is a Master of Political Science from McGill University and a B.A. of Political Science and History.
Global Real Estate Project
|
 |
France: Return to Mother Nature
During the past Paris as a magnet has attracted millions of French peasants. Reading French literature of mid and late 19th century makes it easy to us to understand what the real life was about among the urban underprivileged population, or to use Thomas Hobbes' famous words, it was "nasty, brutish and short". The French governments since then, considering that the population's tide toward Paris and the other biggest cities would be irreversible, tried at their best to make the life there as pleasant as possible. Basically they succeeded and the life in Paris today is far away from one depicted in the novels of Balzac, Zola and Hugo. The problem wasn't that the life in Paris was made pleasant; it came from the fact that large rural regions were considered without any economic future and left without adequate resources for substantial development. It was only in the late 20th century that the tide gradually began reversing its direction. In fact, during the last years the big urban areas in France were losing 400,000 per year in favor of less populated and less expensive areas. Settling down at more than 30 miles from Paris isn't now something unusual. Other big cities are also losing population. Paris becomes more and more a city-museum, populated by foreign crowds. Their deeper pockets push up the prices, which in Paris have increased by 50% during the last 4 years. The foreigners are accountable for a significant part of the demand for luxurious properties (more than $600,000). Paris remains among the most expensive urban areas in the world. The local professionals are moving away from the city centers. Instead of bipolar country division between flourishing cities and bleeding province, we have at least three distinctive rural areas beside the hemorrhaging cities: immediate suburbs that still attract the major part of the movers; new more distant suburbs that attract bolder investors; deep province that seems good-looking for local and foreign retirees because of its still affordable properties. Some areas of Southern and Central France are of particular interest for foreigners, especially from Northern Europe. British retirees, who represent almost half of the new residents, also look at properties in and around the smaller villages alongside the Atlantic coast. The growing demand for properties in the deep province also has pushed up the prices there by almost 10% during the last 2 years. The low interest rates in the EURO zone and the larger disposable incomes in countries like UK are largely contributing to this phenomenon. Growing nets of modern highways and high-speed trains also make easier for investors to settle in regions far from the national capital.
--------------------
See also the directory of companies providing real estate services in, and general real estate information of France.
|
See also:
