Pricing the Homebuyer’s Countryside View

In most developed nations big cities are expanding ever farther into the countryside. Rural populations are growing, whether with workers - commuters or the self-employed - retired people, or temporary residents. In France a “periurbanization” movement began in Ile-de-France in the 1960s and spread to the large provincial cities in the next decade before becoming a nationwide phenomenon (Le Jeannic 1997; Schmitt et al. 1998; Cavailhès and Schmitt 2002). So successful was this movement that by 1999 33% of the land area of France was periurban with 12.3 million people living there. Progression from 1990 to 1999 was remarkable, with the area concerned increasing by half (more than 6 million hectares) and an additional 3.5 million inhabitants being involved.