A British couple say they have found a life they could never have afforded in Britain after they bought a rural villa in France for €50,000 (£41,650) instead of shelling out £200,000 for a mortgage on a home in their native country.

Jane and Rosse Mackerron decided to relocate to northern France four years ago to get a larger property with more land for far less money than they would have paid in the UK.

At the time, during the Covid-19 pandemic, they were living in temporary accommodation in Wales, where they were hoping to buy their own property.

“Just before Covid, we moved in to our best friend’s lodge as we were looking to purchase a mortgage-free property in Knighton, Powys, near where they lived,” Mrs Mackerron, 55, originally from High Wycombe, told The i Paper.

“We were supposed to stay for a few weeks but then the country went into lockdown and we ended up staying for a year.”

The couple struggled to find a home that was big enough for them and still affordable without a mortgage of hundreds of thousands of pounds. “Properties are so expensive in the UK that we would only have been able to buy a small property mortgage-free,” Mrs Mackerron said.

“If we wanted a larger property, like we have in France, we would have to have taken out a mortgage. In France, we were able to buy in cash, mortgage-free,” Mrs Mackerron said.

At the time, she was working as a wedding and funeral celebrant, but Mr Mackerron, 59, a former motor industry worker, was unable to work because of the pandemic. With time on their hands, they started looking at the option of living abroad.

“We had never spoken about moving to France, but it appealed due to the low price of properties, its proximity to the UK, and its slower pace of life,” Mrs Mackerron said.

They found a two-bedroom countryside farmhouse in Brittany, north-west France, but because of the pandemic, were unable to view it in person, relying on videos to see what it looked like. However, thanks to Covid, property prices were low, so they secured it for a mere €50,000.

In 2020, at the height of the pandemic, they made the big move and relocated to France with their dog, Ugo. The couple felt Brittany was near enough for them to be able to get back to the UK relatively quickly if needed. They chose the small village of Saint-Vran, a commune in the Côtes-d’Armor department, near Pléneuf-Val-André, where Mrs Mackerron’s father had a caravan and the family had gone on holiday when she was a child.

“Initially I didn’t think that we were serious, but Covid made us realise that life was too short and if we didn’t take a risk and have an adventure, we would soon be too old to do something so drastic,” she said. She added that Brexit had also been a huge factor in pushing them to move so quickly, fearing that it would become far more difficult to move if they left it too long.

The farmhouse came with a garage, a small galley kitchen, a barn and a huge unfinished extension. One of the major draws was the two acres of land with uninterrupted views over fields.

It also needed renovation work, which Mr Mackerron is carrying out mostly by himself. They converted the garage and kitchen into a large kitchen-dining area, and knocked three small rooms into one to make a large sitting room with patio doors to the back garden. Initially they were planning to renovate the barn to make a gîte (rural guesthouse) but later decided they did not want to hire out any part of their home.

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They believe that a similar property in the UK would cost about £500,000.

The couple are now permanent residents and Ms Mackerron now works as an adviser at the France-based property agency Leggett.

“We can live comfortably on €1,500 (£1,247) per month. It’s a fabulous feeling owning our home and not paying rent or a mortgage,” she said.

The benefits of living in Brittany include less traffic, fewer crowds, and the fact that people work to live as opposed to live to work, she added.

“Nothing is open on a Sunday, as the French dedicate that day to their families and resting,” she said, unlike in the UK. “The noise of the UK always hits us as everyone is rushing everywhere. Here you have time to think and enjoy the simple things. We can sit in our garden and not see a soul. We see more stars than we ever have as there is no light pollution. We have space to breathe.”

The only two things she misses about the UK, she says, are her two grown-up children, who still live there, and British pubs.