Buying property for rental and chambres d'hotes

[Lynne Stevens]

Hello, I'm new to this forum and am looking for some honest warts and all advice.

My husband and I have been visiting France for the last 30 years and have finally decided that we would like to move there.

We are looking to buy a house where we can provide Chambres d'hotes, and buy a couple of houses nearby to run as gites.

Our favourite areas of France are the Dordogne Valley or the Ardeche.

I can get any number of books that give me a price guide for gite rental and how much a room will cost in a guest house, but what I cannot seem to find is a book that gives me an honest picture of the income I can expect to earn eg how many months per year can I expect to rent, do I need to provide en suite facilities in guest bedrooms. All of this will affect the reality of whether we can proceed.

We have approx £300,000 to play with, but need to see a return pretty quickly. We are ready for hard work and are not naive enough to think that it will be all plain sailing, which is why I can do with a bit of help. Can you be my helper?

Thanks a lot in anticipationnot what I need to provide in the gitesmone

[Eslier]

You will find some of the answers you are looking for if you read through the Gites Owners and B&B Owners section of this forum.

As a general rule, the more you have to invest then the more you can expect to make (sounds obvious but you would be surprised how many people go into it not accepting this fact!)

I suppose the big question is, how much do you want to make in the way of an annual income ?

With £300k to spend you have a reasonable amount to achieve a liveable income if you spend your money wisely. Don't however underestimate the amount of cash you will need to equip your properties and buy other equipment.

Firstly, where gites are concerned, you will find that total renatls are generally weeks rather than "months". Depending where you purchase and what facilities you offer, you can expect anything between around 8 and 20 weeks. To get the top end of that you need to research your area particularly well and talk to as many other gite owners as possible. Only those gites offering the best facilities - heated swimming pool is a must - and owners spending a fair amount on advertising can expect to get 18 to 20 weeks. The majority of gite owners only work on around 8 to 12 weeks. As a general rule, English gite renters will pay far higher prices for good quality accommodation than other nationalities. You can go cheap and basic and get a lot of renatls from the french but you will probably end up making less money for more work.

B&B is a different matter altogether and the consensus of opinion is that, to make half a living, you will find yourselves working far harder than you ever imagined. It is possible to do well and those that do seem to have a lot of European visitors. Registration with Gites de France can be a great benefit. I suspect you may find it hard to run a successful B&B and look after two gites. Whatever you do, don't take on more than you can manage as employing staff can be an even bigger headache over here !

What you want to do is certainly achievable with your budget but you must research it thoroughly. The most important decision being the location. Work on the basis that purchasing within the next few months may give you the opportunity to start making some money by about next May and then put some cash flow projections together. With setup expenses, you shouldn't expect to make a profit in year one but after that, you should be able to work towards a 75% profit margin. Don't forget to include the dreaded "social charges" in your budget.

Good luck. I hope it all works out well for you.

[Lizzie15]

" Only those gites offering the best facilities - heated swimming pool is a must - and owners spending a fair amount on advertising can expect to get 18 to 20 weeks."

  I take issue here- a swimming pool yes, not necessarily heated- it depends where you are! This is our first year and we have the top end of this posters estimate but our pool is not heated and we have spent £370 on advertising,not a large amount! You must be prepared to equip your house well though-people are used to comfortable living and don't expect to come away on holiday and lower their standard of living!They also want truthful descriptions! People will pay for quality generally,as long as your property is where people want to be.

 

[Will]

You say you want warts and all advice. I would say do your sums carefully as to what you would have to invest to buy, convert and properly market a suitable property then compare the likely income from that with investing the same amount. Bear in mind that B&B and gites have been done to death in most popular areas so income is likely to be on the low side of expectations unless you have something truly exceptional. Also that costs and timescale of conversions can multiply by a factor of two or three.