GAYVILLE

French Retirement Village For LGBT Community Selling Homes Like Hotcakes

Screen Shot 2013-08-02 at 6.56.22 PMLes Hommen will be glad to know that someone has finally figured out what to do with all the gays in France. The old gays, at least.

Developers of a brand new “private oasis” retirement community near Perpignan in the south of France announced this week that their exclusive neighborhood will cater specifically to gays and lesbians over the age of 50. They did so by adding a rainbow flag to a brochure advertising the development.

Mark Silver, managing director of Villages Group, said they made the decision to market their planned community to the LGBT community as “an experiment” because “the real estate market in France is so bad right now” and they “didn’t have any takers.” So naturally, they decided to change focus and market to the only people over 50 with a disposable income: the gays, of course!

Since changing their strategy on on Monday, Silver said they’ve received “thousands of emails every hour” and he’s “never seen anything like it” during his 40 years in business.

Le Village Canal du Midi, as it’s being called, will boast 107 eco-friendly homes for “the +50 LGBT community who want an active and healthy lifestyle in the warm, friendly, and healthy climate of Southern France.” The starting price for a home is around  £206,000 (~$315,000).

Mayor Yves Bastie of Salleles-d’Aude gave planning permission for the building of the community, but said he was “flabbergasted” to learn that the retirement village would cater to the LGBT community because mockup plans included photographs of heterosexual couples. He’s not bothered by the idea, but rightfully reminded the developers that marketing homes solely to a specific sexual orientation is against French law, and that heterosexual people (Cher) must also be welcome.

Very cool, France. But y’all got nothing on Studburbia.

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