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An Australian couple bought a French palace for $ 1.2 million. Strangers help pay to repair it
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An Australian couple bought a French palace for $ 1.2 million. Strangers help pay to repair it

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The newest episode of Dateline watches why some Australians join the Gulf of Foreign Buyers who pick up French castles and the race to restore them. View Châteaux for sale on Tuesday 9 September at 9.30 pm on or through SBS on request.
For Australians Felicity Selkirk and her partner Tim Holding, a former Victorian politician, the recovery of a Château in West France was not always on the maps. But since Tim left his political career in 2013, moved to Paris a change in pace.
After looking for French properties for months, the couple fell in love with a heritage that happened to cost less than a house in Sydney.

They bought Château de Purnon, a Château with 105 rooms on 24 hectares of land in 2020-for $ 1.2 million. That is less than the average house price of Sydney, which this year reached $ 1.7 million according to the last house price report from Domain.

But the once large estate was about to expire.
“The local population thought we were crazy when we first arrived,” Tim told Dateline.

“The roof was full of leaks and the water came in and we moved buckets to keep the Château as protected as we could.”

The costs for repairing a Château

In 2024, Tim and Felicity were able to have the roof replaced, making it waterproof for the first time in decades. Five years after owning the building, they were finally able to work on the inside of the main house.
They say it was the “optimism of inexperience” that maintained them. But with only six of the 105 rooms done, it is a huge project.
The couple decided to start a YouTube channel to share the restoration trip of the estate and make contact with friends and family back in Australia.

In a Q and A on YouTube last year, the couple estimated that only the first phase costs € 2.7-2.8 million (around $ 4.8- $ 4.9 million) with further repair costs that must be determined by research of the immovable good-that determine which type of work requires and is also permitted and permitted under heritage laws.

For Felicity and Tim, the preservation of the estate and his historical architecture is the priority at Purnon.
“It is not at all feasible to do everything that needs to be done here in our lives,” said Felicity.
“What we can do is that we can ensure that we save and protect as much as possible in our lives.
Tim said, “We never came here hoping to play men and ladies.”

“For both of us it just seemed like such an incredible adventure to not only live in a Château, but also to be part of a journey of recovering.”

The financing of the restorations

Château de Purnon has the status “Historic Monument”, the highest level of heritage protection in France. Buildings that receive this status are subdivided into two categories, those of national importance or considerably regional importance. This status is granted by the French Ministry of Culture.

This status qualifies the couple for government financing, which varies between federal, regional and local authorities and councils. The national budget for restoring the heritage is € 326 million ($ 582 million) per year, and regional subsidies offer subsidy rates, up to 40 percent for restoration work on heritage monuments and 20 percent for listed properties.

In addition to the financing of the government, the other important income flow of the pair of paid subscriptions on their YouTube channel, streaming platforms and paid brand agreements is. People who pay access to exclusive weekly videos after specific renovation projects.

Felicity and Tim partly finance renovations by paying online subscribers who watch their videos. Credit: SBS Dateline

Their English language content after their recovery efforts has attracted interest worldwide and even financial support from some of their nearly 300,000 YouTube subscribers. This perhaps unconventional source of income has been essential for recovery.

While Felicity and Tim vlog their adventure, other Australians such as Ben Ashcroft-dining help foreigners to secure a real estate scheme.

Foreigners help buy a château

Ashcroft-dining is the agent of a buyer. Originally from Melbourne and now based in France, social media has also been crucial for his career, who started a Facebook group on Châteaux in 2020.

A man and a woman listen to another woman who speaks. They are in a room of a castle.

Ben Ashcroft-dining acts as a copper agent for foreigners who want to buy the French Châteaux. Credit: SBS Dateline

“I really thought it would be this little, really niche Facebook group that would go very few people,” he said Dateline.

“It wasn’t the offers in the beginning.”

But the group of Château enthusiasts has grown to nearly 100,000 members, which offered it to facilitate the interest in buying cheateaux as a buyer.

Why foreigners want Châteaux

Although his customers come from the US in the first place, where “the type of fairy tale of the Château is popular,” said Ashcroft-dining that Australians are working on his service, something that he places on a national affinity.

According to Ashcroft-dining, the Australian housing market influences its customers. He said that a liveable castle of a large house could be collected between around € 1-2 million ($ 1.7- $ 3.5 million).

These characteristics are “quite luxurious but really much more affordable than you think, especially in comparison with the house prices of Melbourne and Sydney,” he said Dateline.
There are around 45,000 Châteaux in France. Although many are still in French hands, either due to inheritance or family problems, the costs for maintaining heritage properties lead to some families wanting to sell.

On Propriétés Le Figaro, an international website of luxury real estate, there are more than 1,000 Châteaux for sale and about 30 are mentioned for less than $ 1 million.

Consequences of foreign ownership

For the French local population, however, the bargain dream of a foreigner can be a double -edged sword.

Saint-Blancard, a small village of 350 inhabitants in southern France close to the Spanish border, is struggling with the fall-out of foreign investments that went wrong.

Two sets of traffic signs in French, as well as a bus stop with a sign with 'Saint Blancard'. Trees and a statue are visible in the background.

The inhabitants of Saint-Blancard fear that the historic castle of the village will not survive. Credit: Kumi Taguchi / SBS -Dateline

The local castle of Saint-Blancard is located in the center of the city. When a British buyer bought it in the nineties, the community felt hopeful that the heritage building would be kept.

But instead it has fallen into disrepair, with some damage irreparable. Villagers fear that the castle will not survive in the coming winter.
Residents such as Sandrine acknowledge that although there were “many, many reasons” why the big plans of the owner did not come to life, the neglect of the building was difficult to look at.
“The families of Saint-Blancard, the ancestors, all participated in the life of the castle. It is our heritage. It is not hidden in a forest. We are in the middle of the village,” Sandrine told Dateline.

“We have this feeling of pride. We love these stones.”

SBS presenter Kumi Taguchi is in the middle of a large, mostly empty room. The room would once have been big, with wooden paneling, red wallpaper and a large statue of a man who drives a horse against the distant wall, but the floor is covered with glass and there is graffiti on the wall.

The castle in Saint-Blancard was bought in the 1990s by an English man. Credit: SBS Dateline

While overgrown plants travel over the castle walls and parts of the roof, the owner calls on the owner to sell unanswered.

There have been pushs of the French government to keep chateaus in French ownership. Through initiatives such as Loto du Patrimoine, or Heritage Lotto, launched in 2018, the progress of scratch cards are used to finance heritage projects.
According to the French Ministry of Culture, this lottery sales have raised more than € 155 million ($ 277 million) from 2024 and supported nearly 950 restoration projects in France.

However, further cuts on heritage financing continue to reduce this type of support. National orientation points such as Saint-Blancard Castle are classified as “low priority” compared to larger orientation points such as the iconic Cathedral of Paris, which was rebuilt in 2019 at an estimated costs of € 800 million ($ 1.4 billion) after it was severely damaged by fire.

Expert says that foreign owners need the right motivation

Frédéric Didier, considered the most important historical monument architect of France, said that private and foreign ownership of Châteaux quickly becomes essential.

“The state is not a bottomless pit with bottomless bags,” he said.

As the heritage architect behind the repair of the Versailles palace of € 390 million ($ 697 million), he said that the French government already has difficulty maintaining its own heritage properties and that various strategies are needed to tackle the many Châteaux throughout the country.
Dider said that people should believe that every Château must be saved.
“We have to pretend, with every destruction, every loss, it’s like we are amputating something that is all of us,” he told Dateline.

Although private ownership is needed, Didier emphasizes that owners must have the right motivation and deal with the French cultural heritage respectfully.

A man who wears glasses speaks with SBS presenter Kumi Taguchi in a large but bare room.

Frédéric Didier said that the French government cannot afford to finance restoration for all historical Châteaux of the country. Credit: SBS Dateline

Respect is something that Tim and Felicity in their local community of Verrue have appreciated the process of repairing Château de Purnon.

“There is a lot of emotion in this community about the Château. It goes back a long way and there is a lot of emotion about us and what we do,” Felicity said.
Despite the first awkwardness that communicates through a language barrier and cultural nuance, the locals have embraced their ownership of Purnon. This year the local mayor even organized the marriage of the couple in the Château.
Despite challenges, Felicity says that the couple is dedicated to see the revitalization of their Château.
“We have committed ourselves to this project; we are integrated here in society,” she said.

“And so our lives are all about Purnon and, making our work successful there.”

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