Buy to let landlord

[Chouette]

Don't know if this is the right thread to post this on but here goes:

Does anyone out there know anything about becoming a landlord in France. I don't mean holiday lettings but more along the lines of buying several appartments and letting them out (unfurnished) to bring me year round income. Buy to let is the big thing in the UK at the moment and though I know that property values do not increase to the same extent as they do in the UK, I am hoping that it would be a way to generate income, plus have some investment growth too.

Any ideas, advice, pointers in the right direction would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[Val_2]

I am by no means an expert on this subject but from reading local cases in the papers and seeing things on television I would urge you to tread carefully here and do things via a professional in this sector and an avocat etc. Lettings in France from what I have seen are by no means the huge income generators they are in the UK and there are some laws that protect the tenants in the case of non-payment etc. You would probably have to form a company for tax purposes too,but your notaire/avocat would give you this info. I wouldn't get involved with anyone who is UK based in this sort of thing either.

[Moulin]

We have been looking into this seriously over the last few months. We have let in UK for 25 years successfully. The key to it is being able to get the rent to pay the mortgage etc. Certainly in rural France, getting the rent is the problem. If you keep you property small and tidy you will get about 350 - 400 per month. If you have an enormous mansion you will probably not get much more. This is not holiday lets but lets to French residence. So it is much more profitable to let studio flats than houses. Good luck.

Jan

[Henry87]

I'm a tenant in France and a landlord in the UK, and wouldn't consider doing it the other way round in a million years. The law protects tenants here much more than it does the landlord. For example if I chose to not pay my rent for six months over the winter there is absolutely nothing my landlord could do about it. So really just to echo what others here have said, I would tread very carefully and take lots of legal advice.

Henry

[Chouette]

Since posting my original message I've discovered this website which I've found very informative:

www.frenchinvestmentproperty.com

[Henry87]

There's a fairly extensive article in the money section of this weekends Le Monde all about buying for investment. It talks about purchasing various alternative types of property such as student accomodation, parking spaces and garages in cities and so on, and discusses the lesgislative and fiscal considerations involved in each option. I haven't looked, but I expect the article is probably available via their website too.

Henry.