Buying a House in France ?

IMO, you need to be very careful when dealing with estate agents abroad. I don't think it's advisable to give them any information prior to viewings i.e. what your budget is, your financial position etc
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Second this. A couple of years ago we were in the market for buying in France and we knew where we wanted to buy. We went around the local estate agents looking at various property details. One of the first things agents will do is see what property range you are interested in and from then on, miraculously, every property you are shown will be in that range. As in Ireland, in France you can haggle on price. Our experience would be that prices can come down by up to 10% at least. Also something to bear in mind is that if you feel you have judged the market and have a particular property in mind, you can make an offer to the agent telling them that this sum will have to include agents and notaires fees. The fees are negotiable too and agents can reduce their fees to catch a sale. Properties for sale by notaires are well worth a look, I doubt if any are being sold cheaply because of the lack of an agent, but certainly you can purchase without the additional agents fees.
 
Riviera,

Thanks for all the info. It does agree with what I've been told, but it's good to get a second opinion.

Apt I'm buying in Perpignan costs €237k for a 75sqm 2 bedroom, with balcony & including parking space. Won't be finished till '08. How does that compare to Nice ?

I personally know the agent & he's told me that the remaining apts - I booked mine in June - went up by 7% & are all sold. It's a lovely area & I prefer to go for the more steady long term rental market. I'm in it for the long haul.

Yes, I have kept away from Leaseback as I feel it's only really a good idea if you want usage yourself.

All comments are very welcome. You can never have too much info !
 
For the record, I don't work for an estate agents. I work in a property brokerage, and we work with over 140 or so estate agents in Nice. We have no listings ourselves, therefore we've no particular bias on which apartment you buy. We get our commission from agency's comm. - so price of apartment is same as if you walked into agency yourself.

The listing system in France is favourable for our brokerage. Properties can be listed with up to 8 different agencies, so we can pick and choose which agencies to work with. 99% of the time its the one with the apartment at the lowest price. The other 1% is when the cheaper agency is a pain the behind, but we have already seen how low the apartment is being listed for, which is the figure we work on.

I felt the need to write the above after the other postings saying i'm biased and trying to sell you something. I'm biased in favour of Nice :) . I don't particularly mind if you don't buy anything.

On the contrary, the apartment you have in Perpignan sounds like a great deal! The only way you would get that in Nice is if you 'head for the (less prestigious) hills'.

On whether the prices are negotiable, it really does depend on the property. Sometimes the price is 'testing the water'. Other times its not moving at all. 15% reduction is very good. 10% is possible, but rare enough. 5% is definitely possible. less than 5% is standard.

New-builds are rare in Nice too. Not enough land to develop them. I do 95% resale properties within 10 mins of beach/centre.

Good websites for info on France and buying in France are:

www.angloinfo.com - go to French Riviera section. Goldmine of info on everything and anything. Useful (and very popular) forum too.

www.frenchentree.com - great website about France.

www.fnaim.fr - this is all in french. Google translator can help. There are some english parts. This is the official website on 'real estate' in France. Latest statistics, etc, are here. Very useful.
 
Hey, sorry if you thought I was accusing you of anything ! I would love Nice too but it's a lot more expensive & above my budget. So no bias on my part it's just being practical.

I'm grateful for the info you're providing. I've been told some of those things by my own agent (sounds like he works in a similar fashion to yourself ) who as I said before is actually a friend, but it's still reassuring to hear it from another source who knows what they're talking about.

If I could ever afford it, your idea of renting for the holiday weeks & then having the property to yourself for the off-season sounds wonderful. I don't like the weather too hot so the cooler season would suit me perfectly.....it's a good plan for someone near retirement. Unfortunately I don't have enough hols to be able to take advantage of it, but maybe someday.

Thanks for the links Delgirl. Really useful info there. Good luck with your purchase
 
Just another little bit of info to pass on that I received from an agent in the south of France..avoid purchasing properties during the summer months as prices are inflated by up to 10%. Apparently when all the tourists are around property owners see the opportunity to cash in..I know of one sale where the agent told me of a property that had €40,000.00 added to the original asking price on by the owners and they subsequently sold it to an Irish buyer!
 
Am I right in thinking that when you see a French property advertised as being say 70 sq. metres they are referring to the habitable space ie. bedrooms, kitchens and living rooms but excluding bathrooms, hallways, stairways, balconies?
 
In Nice there is only one englisch based company where we are dealing with to buy a flat on the Promenade.as they also incharge of the rental management & after sales.
They got lots of properties in the center of Nice on
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I work with the previously mentioned agency. They don't have alot of properties for sale but he's quite good at renting properties. I definitely recommend him for renting.

We have exponentially more properties for sale than he has.

We are the only English/Irish-run property brokerage in Nice and on the Riviera. There's a few more English agents/brokers in Nice.

Important point: English companies working in France might have tax/legal issues. Estate agents in France are heavily regulated. Make sure there is a registered French company.

(The previous statement does not refer in any way to the company named in the last posting.)

In France, habitable space ('loi carrez') excludes terraces, stairways, etc.

I'm free to answer any questions anybody has.

I'll only tell ppl who I work for if they PM me.

France is a great place. Last Saturday I went to a wine 'degustation' in Cagnes-sur-mer, next to Nice. €7 entry. Hundreds of wines from the best chateaus in France. Cheeses, sausages, etc. In Nice, 3 course meal can be had for €25 or so. Good food too.

Its not all about the investment.
 
We bought a "petite villa" in a small development of similar properties with a shared swimming pool (which not all developments in France have) 3 years ago further down the coast from Perpignan towards the Spanish border. Is Perpignan near enough to the sea for you.? Have you gone down and toured the area? If you take a few days, fly to Perpignan, hire a car and drive down the coast, stop in coastal towns/villages you like the look of, look in estate agents windows and pick out which properties you want to view, the agents will be extremely helpful and will make appointments to view immediately (off-season anyway). Then you can see exactly what you're getting, how far from beach, shops etc.
That's what I did, found a town I liked (I had read up as much as I could on the area/towns before I went down), pinpointed a couple of nice properties and then my husband came down, we put in our offer and we bought. The notaire saw to everything else and the whole thing was painless.
The southwest of France can be cold and rainy in winter, and in April you have the Tra Montane, the local version of the Mistral which of course you would have along the Riviera. If you read somewhere that the Pyrenees Orientales have 360 days of sunshine a year, don't believe it.
The only thing that disappoints me about our purchase, while I love the area and the town, sea etc. is that it's cold/windy April/Eastertime. I don't know if it was a good investment, we bought it as a holiday home, but it's in an area where there are heavy restrictions on new build - they don't want to make the Spanish mistakes- and it's very middle-class, rather than the glitz/bling that parts of the Riviera may have, so that suits us fine.
All year letting would be a safer bet in Perpignan though, as it's a city. Along the coast your rental season is probably from beg. May to end of September and probably into October (which can be lovely)
 
Another thing, I don't know about the Riviera, but the coast between Perpignan and the Spanish border gets very, very crowded in summer, if you're letting it won't affect you obviously, but if you go down yourself, be warned! But where isn't crowded nowadays? Even the top of Mount Everest is.
 
Silvester,

I've been to Perpignan. Flew into Girona with Ryanair & got the train up. I found this the cheapest way - the train to Perpignan was around €9 & the journey was spectacular as it hugs the coast. Girona itself is a beautiful town & well worth an overnight. You also pass through Figueras on the way where I hopped off & went to see the Salvador Dali museum. I found the whole region interesting.

I wouldn't dream of buying anything without first seeing the area. My apt is purely for investment as I have no intention of holidaying there.My friend the agent suggested the development to me before it even went on the market. The location is right in the town just beside where the new theatre is being built in Espace Mediteranee. There are loads of office buildings in the vicinity so the rental maket will be hopefully taken from there. I can give it to the management company & they will pay me 4% pa or I can make my own arrangements. Yes, as you say it's a city so rental season therefore should be all year round & not influenced by the weather. That was my intention anyway.

Did you know that it's less than 2 hours drive to the ski slopes ? there are lots of options out there apart from beaches.

Riviera, I do agree with you France is a great country. I will happily return to see how the building is going & perhaps next time I will get over to see Nice. Maybe I like the investment because it will give me an excuse to visit more often !
 
Perplexed
Absolutely, the Pyrenees are magnificent in summer and have lots of ski resorts for winter within a reasonable driving distance. And you've got Spain on your doorstep as you say. And the coastline going down towards Spain is amazing, rugged. Andorra isn't too far away either.
You have year round rental in Perpignan which you wouldn't have on the coast. I was just suggesting the area also to Polo1.
Haven't been to Girona yet, but I drove up once from Barcelona. I prefer Perpignan airport, nice and small. Barcelona airport was a zoo and I didn't enjoy the motorway part of the drive. Good luck with your purchase!
 
I bough an apartment of a comany called Med In Heaven (www.medinheaven.co.uk) they are a property finding service in the South of France. They dont cost a thing and were very helpfull in regards to walking me throuh the buying process, they opened a bank account for me when i bought my property and helped me with a few problem i had afterwards(telephone installation etc).
 
attica2k said:
I bough an apartment of a comany called Med In Heaven (www.medinheaven.co.uk) they are a property finding service in the South of France. They dont cost a thing and were very helpfull in regards to walking me throuh the buying process, they opened a bank account for me when i bought my property and helped me with a few problem i had afterwards(telephone installation etc).
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Anything to declare?
 
attica2k said:
I bough an apartment of a comany called Med In Heaven (www.medinheaven.co.uk) they are a property finding service in the South of France. They dont cost a thing and were very helpfull in regards to walking me throuh the buying process, they opened a bank account for me when i bought my property and helped me with a few problem i had afterwards(telephone installation etc).
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You pay them indirectly in the higher price you pay to the vendor - me thinks
 
I bought an apartment on the pedestrian area in Nice a few months back. Its an investment property for holiday lets. I use it the odd time myself when its not rented.

For my apartment, I paid the standard 6% agency commission (as I saw in the notaire's office at the final signing). From what I gathered, they got paid by the agency.

We viewed with a few other agencies and they are the best from what I've seen. There are other English-speaking services like this in Nice that might be worthing having a look at too.

It was good to see an Irish face when I was in Nice!
 
Sorry to hear that delgirl. I can only say that I've been happy so far with all aspects, and did alot of research across the whole of the area before deciding to actually buy in Collioure after visiting over the summer.

Was there anything specific that they did to make you form that opinion?

Cheers, iarmst.
 
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