Where to Buy???

[hazeyk]

I know the south east of france quite well but now that my hubby and I have decided to make the move to france we are unsure where we should buy our property. In the first 2 years, we would use it for holiday lets in the season and live in it the rest of the time. So which department would be best for renting and do we go for city/town /village or rural with neighbours? Any advice would be greatly appreciated as we do not want to make an expensive mistake.

[Sprogster]

You won't find many forum members in the south east of France, as evidenced by the limited number of posts on this regional section of the forum. The other French forum I participate in is the same.

One of the reasons probably is that south east France is after Paris the most expensive area of France to buy property and live in and therefore less favoured by retirees.

Hence the two most important questions are what is your budget and how far from the coast do you want to be?

[Gardian]

[quote user="hazeyk"]I know the south east of france quite well but now that my hubby and I have decided to make the move to france we are unsure where we should buy our property. In the first 2 years, we would use it for holiday lets in the season and live in it the rest of the time. So which department would be best for renting and do we go for city/town /village or rural with neighbours? Any advice would be greatly appreciated as we do not want to make an expensive mistake.[/quote]

To me, you've answered your own question.

Whatever you buy, you're going to live in for much of the time with holiday lets during the season. After a couple of years, you're presumably going to retire to that property. Thus it has to be something and somewhere that suits you for the long term.

If you know the area reasonably well, then do what I always say - get yourselves down here for a week or so, settle on an area & register with some halfway decent immobiliers.

Be aware though that "using it for holiday lets in the season" is easier said than done. One of the biggest problems for owners of owners of 'second homes' is the ongoing maintenance: difficult enough for those who just use a place as a 2nd home - potentially much more difficult for those who are seeking to let a place to (justifiably) demanding paying guests. 

[Gardengirl]

Gardian has a very good point about maintenance; a big worry for many absent owners is the garden, damage to the property by extremes of weather and break-ins. One of our neighbours has a good arrangement, which might be worth considering. Our apartment block is fairly new, so has needed little doing; when anything does in the future, the managing company will arrange it, and the block is very secure. It has a shared pool and garden, garage and is a 5-minute walk to a small attractive town and is close to many interesting and/or historical places for visits. They bought a 2-bedroom apartment, which they use themselves at various times of the year and rent it out a lot of the time via the internet. They have an English couple who live nearby to do the change-overs, and the chap does any work which crops up, who also check occasionally in case of problems when the property is empty. The owners have had little problem renting the apartment ou, and have had tseveral lets of a couple of months, with British, American and Canadians as their main clients. They began renting out to cover the taxes and charges on their property, but now make quite a good profit on it. Another couple rent out mainly to French and Scottish clients.

[andyh4]

Gardian has taken the words right out  of my mouth and popped them on virtual paper.

 

If this is to be a long term home then it has to be somewhere that suits you and the rental potential has to be secondary. 

If on the other hand you need that rental potential to fund the purchase, then I suggest you maybe need to rethink.

[Sprogster]

From people I know who rent their properties in France, I get the impression that it is barely economic for what is such a relatively short rental season, especially when you add in the cost of paying someone to deal with the weekly handovers and cleaning, plus the inevitable maintenance and repairs that result from tenants. Another consideration is that non resident landlords now have to pay in addition to tax, high French social charges on the rental income, which reduces the economics even further.

The OP's are correct in that in your situation the primary consideration is to buy a property that best fits your needs for what will become your main home and renting opportunities should be a secondary consideration.

Anyway, time is on you side as an article on international property in the current Economist magazine has French property as the most overvalued in Europe by far and indeed one of the most overvalued in the world, so a downward correction is inevitable and may indeed have started in the last quarter.