Leaseback in France

Hi

Two queries regarding buying an investment property in France.

1. What is the taxation situation re rent and on sale

2. Has anyone any experience of France CentreParks (Pierre and Vacances)- there is a new development being promoted by P and V with 4.5% rent

Many thanks
Privinv

For God's sake, don't proceed one inch wiuthout getting professional advice on the French Tax system.....it is legend with problems! The most important part of buying property abroad is to have good professional advisors that know both codes! Good luck!

Firstly, you need to seek to seek advice on taxation so that you are 100% clear on what you are entering into. This is applicable wherever you buy and is not something that is dealt with by agents generally due to regulations.

To summarise however, you will need to declare any income you earn in France both in France and in Ireland. With a leaseback property, your agent or the developer should set you up with an accountant in France to ensure that you are taxed under the most appropriate scheme for your case, this could be a forfeit scheme or actually based on real income and outgoings. This could make a big difference to what tax you would actually pay! Most people end up with a deficit and don't pay any tax in France for roughly the first 8 years or so.

If you deal with it correctly from the outset it is a lot easier and not difficult at all providing you have the right help.

Concerning Centre Parks developments, have you ever been to a Centre Parks? Whilst P&V have an excellent reputation, I would be worried about the re-sale of these particular leasebacks as opposed to other leaseback properties due to 1) the quantity of them and 2) the quality of other Centre Parks developments I have seen in the past. I believe that there are other leaseback developments out there which offer better value for money and better re-sale potential.

Good luck!

With regards to almost all leasebacks that are currently on offer in France, intending investors should tread very carefully indeed.

Previous poster mentioned the problems with end of lease selloff on CentreParcs, but this is in fact true of most of the current offerings. I am not aware of any leaseback on the market that would attract local interest post-lease, particularly at the prices that they are seeking. When the leaseback concept came on the Irish scene a few years back there were some ok ones on offer, carrying a premium of about 15% on local market norms, which was acceptable enough. Now however, the companies selling leaseback projects have got far too greedy, and premium of 50% over market is normal enough. In addition, property sizes have become ridiculously small in line with rising prices. Returns are also lower, with 4.5% typical enough on the less mediocre ones,and a little more on the real rubbish.

Best advice on the current leaseback offerings -- don't waste your money!

Thanks for the info, it is appreciated.