THE NEW faster rail route to Europe is set to spur a wave of second-home buying, principally in northern France but also further south. Environmentally-aware buyers will seize the opportunity to shun the plane in favour of the train, while taking advantage of lower prices in some areas. The chance to buy a rural home for less than £100,000 could even attract first-time buyers who cannot afford property at home.

The opening of the 186mph rail line from St Pancras to the Channel Tunnel in November will shave an average of 25 minutes off the journey from London and increase the swing from air and road towards greener forms of transport. A guilt-free second home will thus come within a snooze on a train for British buyers.

Northern France is the likely beneficiary of the new link. Paul Humphreys, head of the French desk at Knight Frank’s international department, says: “It will certainly increase demand: it makes it more convenient, and it further reinforces the perceived trend not to fly if the Government starts to tax flying more for environmental reasons.” The towns that may become more popular with British buyers include Deauville, Honfleur, Rouen, Caen, “and the ubiquitously pretty Normandy villages, as well as Le Touquet and even Dieppe”, he says.

Liam Bailey, Knight Frank’s head of residential research, adds Vannes in Brittany and the Upper Loire Valley to the list. He says: “Pretty much all of Normandy and Brittany will benefit, and anywhere within a 45-minute drive of a station. City-living destinations such as central Paris, Amsterdam or Brussels will also become more popular.”

The whiff of change – from aviation fuel – is definitely in the air. Many estate agents believe that the high-speed rail link, the threat of green taxes on air travel and lengthy security delays at airports will persuade more second-home owners to let the train take the strain. Bailey says: “We have seen more interest in northern France over the past 12 to 18 months, because people are concerned about how they will get to the South of France if travel becomes more expensive and more difficult.”

He adds: “People know that the cost of air travel will potentially rise over time, which is why people are looking at locations either in England or northern France – nearer to home, in other words. If it takes for ever to get through check-in and security, all the advantages of a ‘quick’ flight, however cheap, evaporate. That is why places that might not be as attractive as southern Europe sunshine destinations are becoming popular. You avoid all that hassle.”

Penny Zoldan, managing director of the French property agent Latitudes, believes that the improved rail links will consolidate the holiday-home market in Normandy, Brittany and Pas de Calais. Like Paul Humphreys, she tips Le Touquet and Dieppe. “Le Touquet has always been popular, and if you go a little into Normandy, to the area around Dieppe, people feel that it’s a bit more like the real France.”

Other places that could benefit from a good rail service included Poitiers, the Côte d’Azur and even Avignon, she says. “You have covered a huge distance in a very easy way, and you can either get a cab or hire a car when you get there. At Cannes or Nice you can get on a local train to take you to your holiday home along the coast. It’s a very nice journey.”

Even ski resorts may profit from the link, if the snow survives the climate change that these environmentally conscious buyers fear. Zoldan says: “You just get off the train at Bourg St Mau-rice and go straight up the mountain in the funicular: you’re in Les Arcs within ten minutes.”

It’s hard, though, always to be green. British buyers in country areas will probably need to hire a car when they get there. As Zoldan warns: “The problem with rural France generally is that if you come without a car you are a bit stuck.” She says that an average spend in northern France is about £150,000 to £200,000; on the Côte d’Azur probably double that. She explains: “Le Touquet and Deauville are exceptions in the north because Parisians buy there: two-bed apartments there cost €300,000 (£204,000) to €400,000 (£272,000), anywhere else in northern France about €100,000 to €150,000.” Two-bedroom cottages a long walk into Le Touquet cost from €150,000 to €200,000, she adds.

So what do you get for £100,000 in France? Latitudes says this sum will buy you a longère – house with a garden – in northern France, or, if nearer the coast, a one or two-bedroom apartment. If you buy off-plan, £100,000 will buy you a small townhouse or apartment across France. “If you buy off-plan on a leaseback scheme, you are exempt from VAT at 19.6 per cent, so you might get a bit more choice,” says Laura Guy, of Latitudes. For £100,000 you can also buy a studio apartment in Nice that needs a bit of work done, a modern villa in Languedoc, or a village house in the hills in the north of the area. Guy adds: “Languedoc in general is quite a hotspot, because it’s the area in France where the population is growing fastest.” Eco-buyers in this area would take the train to Montpellier, Perpignan or Carcassonne.

Simon Montague, director of communications at Eurostar, thinks that Lille will be the next hot destination. “Lille comes down to 1 hour 10 minutes from Ebbsfleet. That’s closer to London than Eastbourne, Salisbury, Portsmouth or even Margate in terms of time. And Lille is a hub for high-speed trains all over France.” Montague believes, against conventional wisdom, that Eurostar can compete with budget airlines on price: “Our lowest fare is £59 return London-Paris or London-Brussels. We sell a million of these tickets a year.” He adds: “The high-speed network in Europe is going to nearly double in size over the next five years. Rail travel is a genuine alternative to air – it just requires behaviour change – and it makes Europe immensely doable for a weekend.”

The effect on property values of this expanding rail network is difficult to gauge. Liam Bailey, of Knight Frank, says there may well be a “beneficial effect” on property prices, but he won’t give figures. “Prices in France are high compared with five years ago, so it is more a case of underpinning the market,” he says.

Margaret Clark, a freelance picture editor who lives in Walthamstow, northeast London, needs little convincing of the benefits of the improved rail services. She bought a four-bedroom holiday home in Haute Vienne, Limousin, with her sister in 2002. The house cost about £28,000 and is now for sale for £68,000. She says: “This link will make it a really easy day trip to get there; I live nearer St Pancras than Waterloo, and the train to Paris will also be quicker, so in all I’ll save about an hour. That is the deciding factor that will stop me flying again.”

She takes the Eurostar to Paris, then changes to an SNCF train that takes 2½ hours to reach La Soutteraine, the station nearest their house. From there it is 15 minutes by taxi to the village of Tersanne. For Margaret, the train gives her the bonus of a two-centre holiday: “I love stopping off for a day or so in Paris – going by train gives me a city break as well as a rural one.” Her sister liked Limousin so much that she has now bought a house in the next village and has moved there permanently. “So now she picks me up from the station and I can use her car,” Margaret says.

She thinks trains are a no-brainer: “Flights to Limoges are limited – one a day from Stansted with Ryanair at the moment – and the train gives me much more choice about what time I want to go. Also, if you fly you have to queue up for a couple of hours at the airport. And on a train there aren’t any weight allowances.

“I think train travel is infinitely more civilised. You can sit and read a book, in an allocated seat; I like to just wander around and have a coffee. There never seem to be the same kind of delays that you get with air travel these days. The reason we chose that area originally was because of the budget airline flights to Limoges, Poitiers and Tours, but the train has overtaken that now.”

Margaret Clark’s house is for sale via Agence Marche Limousin: 00 33 555 68 59 29

GETTING ABOARD

- Eurostar services from Waterloo International will cease when St Pancras International and Ebbsfleet International open in November.

- A parkway station at Ebbsfleet, close to Bluewater in north Kent, will have 9,000 car spaces; journey times from there will be ten minutes quicker than from St Pancras International.

- A new international station at Stratford, near the site of the 2012 Olympics, is expected to open in 2009.

- The completion of two high-speed railway links will further ease travel to continental properties: the Brussels to Amsterdam route will open in December and the Brussels to Cologne line at the end of 2008.

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