Grant from Gites de France

[Racerbear02]

Forgive me if this is an old topic, but I tried to do a search and all it gave me was the current list of what  I had looked at today on all the forums ! A bug perhaps?

I was watching an old 'Place in the sun' or similar programme the other day and the presenter assured the two potential buyers of a place that Gites de France would cough up a grant of £7000 to assist with renovating property into a gite, the only stipulation being that you rented the property out through them.

Simple question really, is this correct?, if so are there any drawbacks etc.  I went to the Gites de France site but could find nothing.

 

[Miki]

Hi,

It is not as simple as that but yes, help can be given in certain circumstances. You will be expected to cough up quite a bit yourself. Most works must be carried out by bone fide artisans and devis sought from a certain number of persons.

It is not on the English version, well not that I can find but the URL below will lead you to an adobe page for creators of a gite or chambre d'hôte.

It is in French and as some others have noted, G de Fr are not that helpful with non French speakers but it is not that difficult to wade through and it is useful to see what B&B or gite owners are expected to know about cotisations etc. It is a useful mine of info and it is the same book we have on joining, I think.

If you can't find the contact number there, let me know and I will dig out their central contact numbers.

http://www.gites-de-france.fr/fr/pdf/guideducreateur.pdf

[Ianhaycox]

We looked into getting a grant for help with gite renovations and they are available, but it is quite a long haul. You need to prepare a dossier showing the need for tourism in the area and projected revenues etc.

As Miki said, the work must be done by registered tradespeople, but the grant is only paid at the end of the work once Gites De France have 'labelised' your gite. I.e. it conforms with their standards. I think you must then keep it a gite for 10 ? years. The grant must be approved before work starts using the devi's provided by the trades.

Gite de France do not provide the grant, the funding is provided (in our area), by the state (EU ?) , the region & the department in various proportions. My understanding is that the state and the dept. have withdrawn support for this year, but like everything in France it depends which area you live in.

The cost savings are potentially high, and the work is done by professionals, but it will take longer.

Good luck

[Racerbear02]

Thanks for the replies, I will persue the issue and see if the red tape makes it worthwhile or not

[Patmobile]

I can add something to the previous replies, as I have received a grant of 12000 euro for my 2 gites.

You are obliged to become a member of GdF and meet the required standards. This is not too difficult but there is a lot of detail to observe, even before you start the work.

You don't have to do the bookings through GdF; we do ours direct, but we do appear in the GdF guide and on their website. We are allowed to set our own rates, as we choose, but we are obliged to stick to the rates we publish through GdF.

You need to apply for the grant before you start any work at all. Having applied, you then ask for permission to start the work pending their response to your application. Once you have the permission you can go ahead without waiting for the decision.

The application itself is fairly simple. It goes to the Conseil General of your region and needs to be in French and formally couched. You are likely to have to have your proposal and the site inspected, assessed and approved by someone from the Conseil General and from GdF.

Payment of the grant once it has been approved comes some time after completion of the project and after submission of receipted invoices to prove you have spent your share of the cost. In our case the whole thing took a little under 2 years.

It's not absolutely clear, but I believe we would have to repay a proportion of the grant if we did not stay in business with GdF for the whole 10 years.

If I can help please feel free to contact me via the forum