[Bevdeforges]

Just a point of reference - GBP1000 = € 1164 or so as of today. The current SMIC (French minimum wage) is €1747.20. (All figures are monthly amounts.) Generally speaking the required income for a long-stay visa is a function of the SMIC at the time you apply. It's not necessarily twice the SMIC for a married couple, but it will be something more than the SMIC for just one. And over the next couple of years, the SMIC will rise, depending on economic conditions, cost of living, etc.

The French government is also not keen on your running down your "nest egg" in order to live in France. Ideally you would be earning some sort of income on it - investing, bank interest or whatever - and you would be living off that rather than running down your original balance. The other factor you may be overlooking here is that you will need a private health insurance policy for your first year in France - and once you are resident in France for 3 months, you can join the national system - for which you are charged a percentage of your annual income until you start drawing your retirement pensions. If you have "pre-existing conditions" that first year policy can get expensive, but even after you join the national system, you'll need a mutuelle to reimburse what the national system doesn't. Those costs can be a real shock to those coming from the UK.

You may want to do a bit of research - both online and ideally with one or more reconnaissance trips to Brittany to get an idea of the current costs of day to day living expenses, including things like the cost of car ownership, utilities, insurances and all the other expenses of actually living here. There may well be a way to carry out your plan, but you need to determine what your actual costs and requirements are going to be.

 

[Bevdeforges]

Think about it from the French govt. point of view -- would they really want a lot of foreign cheapskate OAPs turning up, buying a house, and then getting free healthcare from the state for the final decades of their life? I dont think so.

This is a big part of the issue. Healthcare in France is not free like it is in the UK. The national health care system only covers a portion of your healthcare costs and you're pretty much expected to take out a "top up" health insurance to cover you for the rest. Figure 100€ per month per person covered for a couple nearing pensionable age, depending on the services you need and your location (how close you are to hospitals, specialists you might need, etc.).

There are also the taxes on your home - taxe fonciere once you buy your place, for one.

Brexit has been something of a shock for many Brits who delayed their big move to France (or Spain or Italy) or who simply hadn't reached pension age by the time it finally happened. Losing that Freedom of Movement thing puts the Brits on an equal footing with the Americans, Canadians, Aussies and Kiwis - who aren't generally used to having to deal with visas and residence permits and that sort of thing.

 

[Bevdeforges]

I know we have a tendency here to all jump on someone who has a plan that seems to provide problems to overcome. In some cases it's because we have run into precisely those problems and have the battle scars to show for it.

But in the present circumstances, where you will need long-stay visas and residence permits to settle in France, you should seriously look at postponing your big move (and selling your UK home) until you are eligible to start drawing your pensions. Early retirement in France has always been a huge problem for most early-retirees from non-EU countries. Once you are within spitting distance of drawing those pensions, the process gets considerably easier.

You'll still have to find private health cover for the 1st year - but after 3 months of residence you'll be eligible for the national program with the UK picking up the tab because you'll have your S-1 (or whatever it's called these days) attesting to your rights based on your UK coverage. With your pension statement there's not really any quibbling about your "financial resources" and quite a few parts of the whole immigration process will get quite a bit easier.

Meanwhile, use the time you have until retirement to make periodic visits to the area you're interested in and do your research on how the various systems here work - especially the property markets, the health care system and whatever other aspects of Life in France appeal to you. You'll be making the transition much easier on yourselves than if you rush it and run into obstacles with the bureaucracy based on doing things "too early" or in a way that will make your application somehow suspect. (The French administration doesn't go for thinking or doing things "outside the box.")

 

[Bevdeforges]

One thing you can start on right away is to check out the various immobilier websites (immobilier = estate agent) in the areas in which you are interested in Brittany and see what is available for 200K GBP (about €233K) in terms of a house with land. You don't say what you are planning on doing with an acre of land, but that's a little over 4000 square meters, which may be difficult to find, depending on what you want that much land for (depends if the land is buildable or for agriculture).

There isn't a nationwide (or even region wide) listing of properties for sale, but you can get an idea of the general sizes of houses and of land parcels, which should allow you to fine tune your requirements for both the house and the land. Also gives you a chance to start practicing a bit of French and learning real estate terms as you search your way around the immobilier websites. (Or use a Chrome browser where you can get translations of webpages on the fly.)

 

[Bevdeforges]

A half-acre is still a lot of land.

Half an acre is still 2000 m2, which is generally quite a bit more than you'll get with a normal type house - in Bretagne or anywhere else in France. Taking a quick look through some real estate ads online, you're probably looking at something more like 350 to maybe as much as 500 m2 for the lot that goes with the house (and that includes the land the house is built on). But that is definitely enough to raise some veggies. We've got the plot next door to our house, which is 1300 m2 (roughly) and includes a significant garden plus grazing area for the two donkeys. Concentrate on finding a house that meets your needs and is within your budget and the garden will resolve itself (there are even some towns in France that have communal garden areas, not to mention friend neighbors who share their garden produce and some newer "sharing" programs).

VAT is pretty much a non-issue as posted prices include the VAT for regular consumers. You can safely draw up your budget just by using the listed prices online or in the shops. But it's always a good idea to make several successive "visits" to the area(s) you are considering - covering all seasons and all weather conditions to try and get an idea of general living conditions. Coming from the UK, you're much better able to make this type of reconnaissance run than most other potential anglophone immigrants. If nothing else, you can wander by the windows of the various estate agencies to get a feel for availability and prices for homes in the area. (And in case you have missed prior posts on this subject, estate agents work very differently in France than they seem to do in the UK or other English speaking countries - more on that when things get a bit closer for your purposes.)

 

[Bevdeforges]

You only need 30,000 EUR paid in capital to qualify.

Are they requiring 30,000 € in capital these days? I know back when we had just set up our company here (nearly 30 years ago now) they dropped the minimum capital requirement for setting up a company. But I can well understand if they reinstated a minimum - the rules regarding maintaining at least half your original capital balance get really tricky (well, actually, more "annoying").

Just one small caveat about going the route to set up a company to qualify for a visa - there is a whole lot of bureaucracy and paperwork that goes with establishing a company - and then more of the same when you decide to dismantle the company later on. Consider seriously whether you want to put yourself (or yourselves) through all that vs. maybe waiting a few years until you're closer to collecting your pensions. (Full disclosure here - I was the one who did all the accounting, taxes and various filings for our business while we were doing that here. I learned a whole lot, but I can tell you that it's really difficult in the early years and definitely time consuming. Then, too, I was at a decent level in French when I got here, but the beancounting vocabulary and the French take on what I thought were "simple" concepts can be maddening.)

 

[Bevdeforges]

Of course my situation is far from typical and much wouldn't work today. UK was still in the EU when I came over.

Brexit changed things for lots of people and for lots of reasons. There is/was no "minimum income" requirement for exercising your EU Freedom of movement rights. But non-EU nationals are expected to have a minimum income or some sort of financial resources, if for no other reason than that they can be assessed some sort of fee for the health care system (i.e. CPAM/sécu social) at least until they start drawing a pension.

And, in these inflationary times, you do need to give some thought to what sort of lifestyle you are looking for when moving to France. I lived on a real pittance back in the US in my university days - no car, no requirement to have health insurance combined with reasonably good health in my youth, simple tastes, etc. Nowadays I couldn't live that way - not in the US and certainly not here in France. Where there's a will, there's a way - for sure. But somehow you need to deal with the current rules in place.

 

[Bevdeforges]

My advice is wait until you retire and then I think the Gov will deem you have enough to live on with the SMIC it is about 12,000 euros per person!

The SMIC has recently gone up to about 1700€ a month - which is more like 20,000 € per year (though I believe it is somewhat less than twice the SMIC for a married couple - "economies of scale" don't you know <g>).