Has anyone bought a house in France?

[***SandieUK***]

I know we all love Florida but with France being a bit closer to home we are thinking about the possibility of investing in a holiday home in France.

Has anyone else already done this? Apparently one in ten of us Brits has already taken the plunge.

Any comments gratefully received!

 

[rob@rar.org.uk]

I'm in the middle of buying an apartment in a ski resort. From everything I've read about buying property in France, I would not recommend that you think of this as a financial investment. An investment in 'quality of life' type issues, but not something that you would hope to see a financial return from.

Regards

Rob

 

[***SandieUK***]

Rob

Have you looked into these 'leaseback' schemes where you buy into a new development (chalet, villa, apartment) and lease it back as a holiday let. You get a saving of 19.6% because you don't pay French VAT and you get a guaranteed rental income of between 4.5% and 6%?

 

[rob@rar.org.uk]

Yes I looked at those, and in fact made an offer for an apartment under this type of scheme (but was just beaten to the sale by another buyer). In the end we decided that the extra flexibility of being able to use the apartment for as many (or as few) weeks as we wanted outweighed the discounted price and the lack of hassle that you get with leaseback schemes.

Is it your intention that your purchase will be financial investment first and foremost, or will it be mainly a holiday home which you will also rent out to defray costs? Although we only looked into property in ski resorts (it might be different elsewhere in France) I don't think that there is much, if any, money to be made in buying holiday property there. If you have money to invest in property, buy a house near a university and rent it out to students. You can then use the profit to pay for holidays to France!

Regards

Rob

 

[Claire L]

Sandie,
A friend from work and his wife have just moved out to France to start a new life and will be running a B&B once they have completed renovations on their property. Also my Mum and Aunt are out visiting friends who retired to France a few years ago. If you need to know anything just ask and I shall try to find out the answers as I am sure both couples will know of peple who only have holiday homes out there.
Claire

 

[***SandieUK***]

Thanks Claire!

Rob,

When I say investment, I suppose I mean somewhere that we can pop over on the ferry and enjoy the use of it at weekends etc. So it's more quality time rather than a money making scheme - although I'm sure the property would increase in value over the long term. Somehow a terraced house next to the local Uni doesn't have the same ring about it as 'a holiday home in France'!