The Daily Telegraph recently named a handful of European regions which it said were shaping up to be the next generation of property hotspots for British buyers of overseas homes. Among them was the Charente-Maritime region in the west of France.

The paper said: “Although most people have heard of La Rochelle and the Ile de Ré on the Atlantic coastline of the Charente-Maritime in southwest France, this region has pretty much remained a closed book for British property hunters.”

The region is already popular with French second home buyers, particularly affluent Parisians. French agent Leggett Immobilier saw the biggest increase of sales in this region in 2014, recording an average price of €173,000.

“The real up-and-coming areas are Surgères, an attractive market town within easy reach of La Rochelle and 30 minutes from the sea; and Saujon, a small town built around oyster production a mere 10 minutes from the beach, and also the villages of the Gironde estuary,” Tony Murless of Leggett told the newspaper. “Expect to pay just under €300,000 for a three-bedroom property with a pool on the fringes of Saujon.”