Australian Duo Acquires $1.2M French Chateau with Assistance from Donors for Restoration

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Dateline’s most recent episode explores why many Australians are joining the influx of foreign buyers purchasing French castles and the efforts to renovate them. Catch “Châteaux For Sale” on Tuesday, September 9th at 9.30pm on SBS On Demand.

For Australians Felicity Selkirk and her partner Tim Holding, a former Victorian politician, buying and restoring a château in western France wasn’t originally planned. However, after Tim ended his political career in 2013, relocating to Paris signaled a new chapter.

After spending months researching French properties, the pair were enchanted by a historical estate with a price tag lower than that of a typical Sydney home.

In 2020, they acquired Château de Purnon, a sprawling 105-room château nestled on 24 hectares, for $1.2 million. This price is notably less than Sydney’s median house cost, which recently reached $1.7 million as per Domain’s latest house price report.

But the once grand estate was on the cusp of dilapidation.

“The locals thought we were batshit crazy when we first arrived,” Tim told Dateline.

“The roof was full of leaks and the water was coming in and we were moving buckets around trying to keep the château as protected as we could.”

The cost of restoring a château

In 2024, Tim and Felicity were able to get the roof replaced, making the château watertight for the first time in decades. Five years into owning the property, they were finally able to start work on the inside of the main residence.

They say it was the “optimism of inexperience” that kept them going. But with only six of the 105 rooms done, it’s an immense project.

The couple decided to start a YouTube channel to share the restoration journey of the estate and to connect with friends and family back in Australia.

In a YouTube Q&A last year, the couple projected that the initial phase of renovations would amount to €2.7-2.8 million (around $4.8-$4.9 million), with additional restoration expenses to be identified through property surveys. These surveys help determine necessary work and what’s permissible under heritage regulations.

For Felicity and Tim, preserving the estate and its historical architecture is the priority at Purnon.

“It is not feasible at all to do everything that needs to be done here in our lifetime,” Felicity said.

“What we can do is we can make sure that we save and protect as much as we can in our lifetime and that will be our legacy.”

Tim said: “We never came here hoping to play Lords and Ladies.”

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

Funding the restorations

Château de Purnon is classified as a “historic monument,” the highest form of heritage protection in France, designated by the French Ministry of Culture. Such buildings are categorized by either national or significant regional importance.

This status qualifies the couple for government funding, which varies across federal, regional and local governments and councils. The national budget for heritage restoration is €326 million ($582 million) per year, and regional grants provide subsidy rates, up to 40 per cent for restoration works on heritage monuments and 20 per cent for listed properties.

Besides government funding, the couple’s key income sources include paid subscriptions to their YouTube channel, streaming services, and brand partnerships. Subscribers gain access to exclusive weekly videos highlighting specific renovation projects.

A man and a woman stand in front of a grand house, half of which has scaffolding on it. The woman has her back to the viewer and is looking at a phone on a tripod. The man is facing her, speaking and gesticulating.

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

Their English language content following their restoration efforts has attracted global interest and even financial support from some of their almost 300,000 YouTube subscribers. This perhaps unconventional source of income has been essential to the restoration.

While Felicity and Tim vlog their adventure, other Australians like Ben Ashcroft-Dinning are helping foreigners secure a property settlement.

Helping foreigners buy a château

Ashcroft-Dinning works as a buyer’s agent. Originally from Melbourne but now residing in France, social media has been pivotal in his career. It all started with a Facebook group about châteaux in 2020.

A man and a woman listen to another woman speaking. They are standing inside a room of a chateau.

Ben Ashcroft-Dinning acts as a buyer’s agent for foreigners looking to buy French châteaux. Credit: SBS Dateline

“I honestly thought it was going to be this tiny, really niche Facebook group that very few people were going to join,” he told Dateline.

“It wasn’t the listings right at the beginning.”

This community of château enthusiasts has expanded to nearly 100,000 members, prompting him to assist in facilitating interest in purchasing châteaux as a buyer’s agent.

Why foreigners want châteaux

While his clientele is primarily from the US, where “the château kind-of fairytale is popular”, Ashcroft-Dinning said Australians do engage with his service, something he puts down to a national affinity.

According Ashcroft-Dinning, the Australian housing market is influencing his clients. He said that a liveable chateau the size of a large home could be picked up for between around €1-2 million ($1.7-$3.5million).

These properties are “quite luxurious but really much more affordable than you think, especially compared to Melbourne and Sydney house prices”, he told Dateline.

There are approximately 45,000 châteaux in France. While many are still in French hands, either through inheritance or family trusts, mounting costs for maintaining heritage properties are leading some families to want to sell.

On Propriétés Le Figaro, an international luxury real estate website, there are more than 1,000 châteaux listed for sale and around 30 are listed for less than $1 million.

Consequences of foreign ownership

For French locals though, a foreigner’s bargain dream can be a double-edged sword.

Saint-Blancard, a small village of 350 residents in southern France close to the Spanish border, is grappling with the fallout of foreign investment gone wrong.

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

The residents of Saint-Blancard fear the village’s historic castle won’t survive the winter. Credit: Kumi Taguchi / SBS Dateline

Saint-Blancard’s local castle is in the centre of the town. When a British buyer bought it in the 1990s, the community felt hopeful that the heritage building would be preserved.

But instead, it has fallen into disrepair, with some damage irreparable. Villagers fear the castle won’t survive the coming winter.

Residents such as Sandrine recognise that while there were “many, many reasons” why the owner’s grand plans didn’t come to life, the neglect of the building has been hard to watch.

“The families of Saint-Blancard, the ancestors, all took part in the life of the chateau. It’s our heritage. It’s not hidden in a forest. We’re in the middle of the village,” Sandrine told Dateline.

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

SBS presenter Kumi Taguchi stands in the middle of a large, mostly empty room. The room would have once been grand, with wood paneling, red wallpaper and a large statue of a man riding a horse against the far wall, but the floor is covered in glass and there is graffiti on the wall.

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

As overgrown plants travel up the castle walls and parts of the roof have collapsed, calls for the owner to sell have gone unanswered.

There have been pushes from the French government to have chateaus remain in French ownership. Through initiatives such as Loto du Patrimoine, or Heritage Lotto, launched in 2018, proceeds from the sale of scratch tickets are used to fund heritage projects.

According to the French Ministry of Culture, as of 2024, these lottery sales have raised over €155 million ($277 million) and supported nearly 950 restoration projects in France.

However, further cuts to heritage funding continue to reduce this type of support. Rural landmarks such as Saint-Blancard’s castle have been classified as “low priority” in comparison to larger landmarks such as Paris’s iconic Notre Dame cathedral, which has been rebuilt at an estimated cost of €800 million ($1.4 billion) after it was badly damaged by fire in 2019.

Expert says foreign owners need the right motivation

Frédéric Didier, regarded as France’s chief historic monuments architect, said private and foreign ownership of châteaux is fast becoming essential.

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

As the heritage architect behind the €390 million ($697 million) restoration of the Palace of Versailles, he said the French government already has trouble maintaining its own heritage properties and that different strategies are needed to address the numerous châteaux across the country.

Dider said people need to believe that every château must be saved.

“We must act as if, with every destruction, every loss, it’s as if we are amputating something that belongs to all of us,” he told Dateline.

While private ownership is needed, Didier emphasises that owners need to have the right motivation and deal with French cultural heritage respectfully.

A man wearing glasses speaks to SBS presenter Kumi Taguchi inside a grand but bare room.

Frédéric Didier said the French government can’t afford to fund restoration for all of the country’s historic châteaux. Credit: SBS Dateline

Respect is something Tim and Felicity have valued in their local community of Verrue through the process of restoring Château de Purnon.

“There’s a lot of emotion in this community about the château. It goes back a long way and there’s a lot of emotion about us and what we’re doing,” Felicity said.

Despite initial awkwardness communicating through a language barrier and cultural nuance, locals have embraced their ownership of Purnon. The local mayor even officiated the couple’s wedding at the château this year.

Despite challenges, Felicity says the couple is dedicated to see the revitalisation of their château through.

“We’ve committed to this project; we’re integrated into society here,” she said.

“And so, our life is all about Purnon and, making our work there successful.”