France residence - moliets scheme

alzer

Registered User
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Hello - have recently bought an apartment in a leaseback scheme promoted by an Irish development company, france residence, (despite all the negative press on these pages! ).

[broken link removed]

Wondering if anyone else out there has done likewise in the Moliets development.

I would be interested in hearing from them with a view to setting up some type of 'owners' forum where we could exchange our thoughts/experience on this particular scheme/investment as the months and years pass.

Thanks in advance

Alzer
 
Hi Alzer
Like you, we are owners of apartment (soon to be completed, we hope) in Moliets with France Residence. Would be very interested in forum. Already have a query - when can owners avail of the 'free' weeks of their property? Look forward to this thread expanding, particularly next year when apartments are completed, rent is due, and tax has to be paid!
Regards
 
Hi Alzer,
I realise that its years ago since your thread, but myself and hubbie also brought in this complex and are curious to know how your getting on with it? We have had no problems as such just very curious re how to sell if we wanted to, do you have any info on this?
Thanks Marie
 
Moliets - scheme - France Residence

Hi Marie,
Apologies for the 15 month delay in replying!
Regarding the Moliets scheme, from my point of view it has just been ticking along - but haven't paid a great deal of attention to it and still haven't managed to get to stay there for a holiday but would hope to soon.
Don't have any information or knowledge of anyone selling out - may be difficult to recover full investment in a depressed market in recent times
Not sure if you still own there but happy to exchange info/views etc.
Regards
Alzer
 
We're just back from 3 weeks in our apartment in Moliets, and will be going for another 3 weeks in September. We have 2 apartments there, and use the full allotment of 2 weeks free in each every year, and then pay the reduced price for a third week. Love the area, the apartments and facilities are great - well maintained and well managed by Nemea.

We usually attend the annual meeting of Actiim, the Management company, which is held in early June.

Two apartments that we know of have been sold in the past year - one was a distressed bank sale, and the other was a standard sale to another person. We have been told that the apartments are maintaining their value and as the French Gov have decided not to look for the VAT which was paid at the end of the construction if apartments are sold in less than 20 years, then they have certainly maintained their value.

We are now 8 years into the 11-year leaseback arrangement. Contractually Nemea can decided in 3 years time to continue the lease (if 75% of owners agree to this, then this will happen). One option for people to sell is for a group of owners to come together and sell to a fund (eg a pension fund).

To do that, we would need to set up some kind of forum where we can communicate with each other. As Actiim have all of our names and addresses, then this is the obvious place to start.

We will probably look to sell our apartments at the end of the lease period.
 
moliets

that's really useful info, eithne, many thanks!
shame on us we haven't stayed there yet but may look to get there this september. a couple of questions for you:
do ryanair still provide a decent service into biarritz in september - is that the best way to travel. will be travelling from dublin - may not be the same for you?
some holiday sites suggest the resort begins to quieten down in late august - not looking for a nightclub holiday but is there enough open - i.e. restaurants etc in september?
i see from the annual members report that there are lots of irish names on the list - as you suggest that might be a good place to start to get hold of email addresses etc to set up a forum for info exchange etc.
sorry for all the questions!
regards
alzer
 
not looking for a nightclub holiday but is there enough open - i.e. restaurants etc in september?

Even in the height of the season one could hardly descripe French holiday villages as nightclub territory.

Yes, like most of Europe things go much quieter in Sept, once the schools are back. That's why if you don't have kids it's good to go on holidays in June and Sept.
 
Bronte - I don't have a link to this but a French Budget about 2 or 3 years ago did away with trying to get the VAT back from people who bought investment properties under the incentive scheme. We bought here in 2006, so I think that was about the time the French Gov initially introduced it. It was based on owners getting back all of the VAT paid for the construction process back at completion of process, on the basis that the owners held on to the property for 20 years. So, we mortgaged here for the full construction amount including VAT, and got a nice cheque back from the French Gov on completion of construction.

Re September in Moliets, the first 3 weeks are great - all the restaurants/shops etc. are open. There is only 1 nightclub which is open at the weekend - it is actually only across a square from Les Terrasses de l'Ocean. The weather is usually great, and the frenzy of July and August is gone - the population of Moliets grows from the 2,700 permanent residents to 35,000 in those two months. The beach is 5 mins walk from the complex - it's the largest beach in France. After that, things begin to quieten down - the restaurants and shops close down during the week, and the lifeguards only work until the last week in September. It's important to only swim while the beach is monitored by lifeguards as there are very dangerous rip tides (which is why it's a famous surf beach) and the lifeguards mark out a safe area between two flags for beach swimming.
 
Hi Eithneangela, I am a new member and I have just followed you. I am also an owner in Moliets and I am interested in getting to know other owners like yourself.
 
Hi, we also have a property in Moliets, we would like to sell our property, has anyone here sold there or know anyone that has sold, have you all signed the new lease agreement. We have never been and dont think we will ever go down, we are still paying back a loan for it so dont really think its worth it, does anyone know if we will get back what we paid for it, at this stage i just want out but would like what we still owe on it back to pay off the bank
 
Hi Eithneangela, I am a new member and I have just followed you. I am also an owner in Moliets and I am interested in getting to know other owners like yourself.
Hi Paul
I'm sure you've got the notification from Nemea that the rental income is going to be reduced by 30% from now on. France is kind of going through a rough patch economically and the complex is not paying for itself, although I see that Nemea is paying itself a fairly hefty management fee!
I think there's a private message facility here if you want to email me directly. We're scheduled to be there for 3 weeks from 30th May.
 
Hi, we also have a property in Moliets, we would like to sell our property, has anyone here sold there or know anyone that has sold, have you all signed the new lease agreement. We have never been and dont think we will ever go down, we are still paying back a loan for it so dont really think its worth it, does anyone know if we will get back what we paid for it, at this stage i just want out but would like what we still owe on it back to pay off the bank
Fiona. Probably not a good time to sell now as the rental income is being reduced by 30% and this is usually a market for the sale price. We know that a French investor bought one of the apartments two years ago but it was a distressed sale of one of the Irish owners and I suspect it was a bargain (sold by an Irish bank).
 
Thank you for your quick reply, its great to find a form where i can talk to other people that have a place in Moliets, do you think it is worth keeping if we are paying back a loan for it, the rental never covered the loan and now the 30% reduction....... i just dont know what to do ......
 
Eithneangela, where do you fly into and how long does it take to get down to Moliets, is it an easy drive down. Do you fly out of Dublin and when would be the best time to go off season. I would love to go and see the place but id be nervous of driving down
 
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Hi everyone,

we are nearing the end of the lease back scheme, are all of you planning on keeping your apartpments, does anyone know if they stay open all year round, could you go there for a couple of months in the winter. We have never been, where is the cheapest to fly in too and then do you just get a taxi down or do you hire a car?
Is it possible to get your own apartment ?
 
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We have been holidaying in Moliets twice a year for the past 9 years (we have 2 apartments here and get two weeks free in each every year). We take the ferry from Rosslare to either Roscoff or Cherbourg (which allows us to bring back lots of lovely, inexpensive French wine).
If you look at the original contract with SCI you will see that the 11 year leaseback period ends in 2019 (2008 was the initial year, and the 11 year period starts at the end of 2008). So, another 3 years to go. In 2 years time, we have to engage with Nemea (the marketing company who pay the rental income) and make a decision as to whether we continue the lease or take ownership. At that point, Nemea will need to have a minimum percentage of owners continuing the lease for them to continue marketing the apartments.
The weather here is good between May and September, outside of that it gets just as cold as Ireland. I would not recommend spending time here in winter as the apartments are geared towards summer (and therefore probably very cold in winter).

The nearest airports are Bordeaux and Biarritz. There is no public transport between the applets and Moliets so a hired car is a necessity - in any event, there are some lovely areas/towns/beaches in the vicinity that you would want your own transport to get around.
 
Just back from two weeks in Moliets and had a great time again.
Conscious that the lease expires in less than two years and will need to tread carefully to avoid being entered into a further lease or worse.
I'm based in Dublin and my contact details are below.
Would love to assemble aN owners group so that common interests are aired - haven't attended the annual June meeting so maybe this already exists?
Look forward to hearing from some other owners.
Regards
Allen
086 343 2072
 
At this stage there is practically nobody in the UK or Ireland with an interest in property that has not heard of French Leaseback property. This product was (and still is to some extent) promoted to avid UK and Irish property investors as the ultimate ‘hands off’ property investment product. The usual blurb would go something like this: “you can pick up French sale and leaseback holiday homes with 100% mortgages at all-time-low interest rates, guaranteed rental returns and a variety of tax breaks.” In fact, 2013’s blurb hadn’t changed much, just replace the 100% with 85% and there you have it straight from Channel 4’s ‘A Place in the Sun’ in March 2013. The problem is, those that have already ‘invested’ in French Leaseback properties are at this stage very much convinced that the product, far from being a ‘guaranteed return investment’ is in fact a great big scam. In one owner’s opinion up to 90% of people who have invested in leaseback product have had mostly negative experiences. That is a serious indictment of an industry that is promoted as being the exact opposite – ‘hands off’, ‘easy maintenance’ & ‘guaranteed return’ are just some of the promotional buzz words. The odd thing is – nobody is really talking about what is, essentially, an epidemic being nicely swept under the carpet. It is just a murmur in France – when it should really be a roar.

_____

Note – For those interested, a petition has been set up in early 2017 with the aim of highlighting issues with French Leaseback properties at EU and French government level. If you wish to sign the petition the link is : http://bit.ly/2i9VKfr.
 
Hi guys , we are nearing the end of the leaseback and I've still never been. Anyone know what the story is going to be , does anyone ever fly over , if you do how do u get down to Moliets ?
 
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