Jump to content
Complete France Forum

property developer


Glenandsouk

Recommended Posts

we are thinking of buying properties and doing them up then selling them on for a living if we were to move to France. Does anyone know what sort of taxes and what percentage will have to be paid on the profit? Has anyone done it in the past? if so would they give us some advice and guidance please.
Regards
s
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Quite a lot has been written about this in the past - to start with you may like to try searching under CTG and/or Capital Gains tax as well as something like 'selling before 2 years'

(The search facility is via the magnifying glass at the top of the page)

Hope it helps, but the situation AFAIK is very different to the UK.


Gay
http://www.quimperclub.org/
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have a very good personal friend in the UK who owns a company that develops property there. We are talking about a serious guy who is willing to pay over a million for a property to develop. Sounds a lot but it's not really in the UK.

He has spent 6 months seriously investigating the possibility of doing the same in France but has decided not to. The main reasons are tax, social charges (his workers would be here for more than 6 months at a time) and the slow turnover of property (it can take a year to find a buyer and complete the sale)plus the commision fees and notaires fees plus property indemnity insurance.

I don't know how you would get on as a small developer but I know of a couple in my area who have come a bit unstuck.

Chris
Link to comment
Share on other sites

There has been in recent years, cases of communities whereby the local authorities have stopped this sort of development for quick profit going on. A good example was Honfleur in the north where so many brits were buying and selling to make profit and it was driving the prices up and the locals out and has now been banned by the local maire.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

There are still opportunities to make money renovating and selling on, I believe.
However,it is nowhere near as easy or straightforward as has been the case in the UK over the last ten years or so.
Like anything you need to do your research and I,m sure lots of people on this forum know of both positive and negative cases recently.
Good luck
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The usual capital gains taxation rules will apply (nominally 16% on profits, you can offset certain improvement work invoiced by registered French artisans plus legal fees etc). If you are French registered then there will be social charges on top, making the tax rate effectively about 26%. The French system does not favour property speculation.

What most seem to do, if French resident, is to set up a company as a 'marchand de biens'. This can have negative tax implications as well as positive ones, it needs to be a genuine property improvement and reselling business to work properly, and I think work on the houses needs to be completed within a certain timescale. You will need to speak to a professional adviser who knows the French system to see if this would suit your plans.

Will (50)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi all

just to put my centime in, anything which stops property developers in their tracks is OK by me !
IMHO if we had Tax rules in the UK like they have in France we would all probably be paying 50% less for our houses.
As you can see i am not a fan of property developers. Anything which is such a basic human need as a house should not be available to people who want to make a quick buck at the expense of others. I used to work in a Garage which sold high value Prestige Sports Cars and over 60% of our client base was, yes youve guessed it, Property Developers. People always put Estate agents and Traffic wardens at the top of their dislike list but i am afraid PDs come at the top of mine.
Sorry to ramble on, I will calm down now !

John
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Anyone who has sufficient funds to enter into property development and speculation, has the funds to obtain professional advice from an accountant and lawyer.

One clue, this isn't the UK

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...