French/Spanish border, where to buy?

Hi All,
I have been looking for an appartment for personnal use in the Perpignan area in the South of France close to the Spanish border lately. The nearest access is with Ryanair who fly into Girona, over the border in Spain.
I was wondering if anyone has any experience of what the Tax, Legal and price pro's and con's were in the areas around Girona and Perpignan.
Thanks, d2ww.

Hi,

I am not an expert but my experience is I bought a studio in a small town about 35 mins drive from Perpignan. I bought from an estate agent and used a notaire. This was July 2004. It was a good experience overall. I found buying the studio a more civilized business than my experience in Ireland. Just a little info and bear in mind that I am not totally au fait.

I used a translation service for the actual contract. I have a little french but wanted to be certain of what I was getting in to. The contract was very straightforward.

Believe it or not termites and asbestos are important in a contract. Certificates must be provided by the seller or if not you would look for a huge reduction in price. Personally I would prefer to buy a property with all of that sorted rather than have to deal with it myself, language difficulties etc.

I forgot to say the area is fantastic, so many options, magnificent beaches, Argueles Sur Mer, Coulioure, Carcassone medieval city, near Spanish border, Girona, Dali country, magnificent mountains, good cuisine, friendly and helpful people, not overrun with tourists. I love it.


I have a mortgage in France and in Ireland. Can't remember why that was suggested but works ok. Great Interpay system for making payments to France, very cheap, EU eurozone system. Your Irish bank will explain.

French taxes: Taxe fonciere. Payable to local authority. Do pay on time and online. If you forget, gets complicated and you are charged extra 10%.

Taxe d'Habitation. I pay this through my maintenance charges.

One thing to watch out for is inheritance law. If you are married, be sure to have a copy of your marriage cert at the ready and tell the notaire that you wish the property to be registered in you and your spouses names. Otherwise if you have children they have an automatic right to the property and it cannot be sold without their sayso. We did tell the agent but they neglected to tell us about the need for the marriage certificate and the sale went through without this inheritence matter being sorted.

Hope this info is helpful and good luck

We have a one bed apartment at the coast and are currently buying a 3 bed house in a nearby village also. Everything going smoothly so far. Using an english speaking notaire and as above we were warned about registering in both names and did so.
The area is amazing. We have visited at different times through the year and each visit is magical. The area gets very busy during July and August, especially at the coast but there is a terrific atmosphere, lovely markets, street entertainment etc...
Off season it is beautiful and peaceful. We love to drive into the mountains and the scenery is breathtaking. The people are very friendly particularly if you make an attempt at speaking french. The weather is generally very warm. We were there in Jan and it was 20 degrees! We fly into Carcassonne or Gerona - both about 1 1/2 hours drive. IMO the drive from Carcassonne is much more scenic