South of France rental

We are looking at 1 bed apartments in the Juan Les Pins area for investment and some private use. If we buy we want to rent out ourselves through and agency and maintain control for personal use if required. What can we expect as a realistic period of rental weeks in the year for this area?

Joe,
Why Juan Les Pins and not Antibes which is bigger?
C

Juan les Pins was the first place we started to look at in this area. Can you recommend any developments in Antibes? Again, how many weeks a year could you expect to rent in this area?

Have looked at Cannes, Nice, Juan, Antibes and San Remo but have not purchased.
When you own and you have to Let to cover its costs then you are under pressure(which I would not be doing btw)
I can't justify leaving an apart sitting vacant, different if there was great cap appreciation which would justify it.
So sitting on fence, may just rent as I need which also give me diff destinations as I need .

I am living in Nice at the minute and considering purchasing here at the minute as well. The problems are the high transactions costs roughly about 10-15% of apt. price for fees and then on the mortgage you need to take life insurance which adds to the cost considerably. The prices here have rocketed in the last year or two but think they have a bit to go especially in the cities (Nice, Cannes & Marseille) as there are lots of people relocating here. Not sure how the smaller towns will perform though. There are loads of french property websites about where you can find prices and info. (pap.fr, openmedia.fr, explorimmo.com, web-immobilier.net etc). The main tourist season is July & Aug. I have heard that there is also a tax payable if your apt. is empty (to discourage second homes and pricing locals out of market) which you should find out about before you proceed.

Thanks for the replies.

The place (1 bed) we are looking at is in the region of €300k, but area is close to beach and looks like it has good rental potential, however as we would need to rent to cover costs the ability to rent for longer than the peak season is important. We will continue our research in the meantime.

Thanks,
LJ

Little Joe said:

Thanks for the replies.

The place (1 bed) we are looking at is in the region of €300k, but area is close to beach and looks like it has good rental potential, however as we would need to rent to cover costs the ability to rent for longer than the peak season is important. We will continue our research in the meantime.

Thanks,
LJ

Click to expand...

In my view you should separate the issues of investment and a holiday home. The extra costs associated with short-let holiday rentals (cleaning after each let, higher management costs, higher wear & tear, etc.) make it much harder to cover your costs than with long-term letting. The fact that you will also be making personal use in itself incurs an opportunity cost - you can't rent while you're in occupation.

Browsing websites such as the one below might give some insight into how much you could expect for the size, location and standard of the property you'd put on the rental market. There can be variances on what is regarded the "high season" for the purposes of renting and this seems to be reflected in the demand.

http://www.holiday-rentals.co.uk/

Here's another one

[broken link removed]


Murt