FRENCH PROPERTY: WOULD YOU BE INTERESTED ?

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P1206

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Hello Everyone,
I am a French native, living in Ireland. I am thinking about setting up my own french property business in Dublin.

I’ve noticed that there is no particular estate agency in Dublin which provides such services, so I was wondering if Irish people would be interested in French properties as they are with Spanish properties for instance.
Would you consider to buy a french property ? If not, why ?

I hope I will get as much responses as possible (from individuals and estate agents).

Thank you very much in advance for your help.

Best regards
P1206
 
french priperty

I am interested in buying a property in France and would be very interested in dealing with an agent in Ireland.
Could you contact me about this.
good luck with the venture
 
Re: french priperty

Hi p1206,

Do you have some special expertise, aside from being French, that you plan to offer your clients?

tedd
 
Re: French property

Hi Tedd,
Thanks for your reply.
Indeed. I've been working as Business Development Executive for 4 years, for the second largest retail and private bank in france, advising clients on investments, mortgages,... and also working closely with estate agents.
This expertise is very important in order to deliver a very good customer service to clients.

Thanks
Pierre
 
Re: French property

Hi,
Thank you for your reply.
Could you please give me more details about your interest in buying a property in france to the following e-mail address: email address deleted in line with our no-advertising policy


I will be pleased to help you with your project.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Rgds
Pierre
 
Re: French property

Hi P1206

Note that Askaboutmoney.com does not permit advertising, and your posts so far have been verging on advertising for your service. Note that if you are prepared to become an active contributor to AAM, we do permit links/contact details to be displayed on your post profile/signature. Obviously, you could not remain anonymous if you were to do this. I encourage you to get involved on the Property Investment forum and share the benefits of your wisdom.

In the interests of clarity, can you please confirm;

- Are you still a bank employee?
- Are you operating on a personal basis or representing your bank?
- Are you regulated by any professional body or Goverment body?
- Are you prepared to identify yourself publically?

All readers: Please note that AAM in no way recommends or endorses the service offered by P1206.
 
Re: French property

Hi Rainyday,
Thanks for your email.
I am not working in Banking anymore.
I came to Ireland 3 years ago in order to improve my english. I am currently working in accountancy, so that's nothing to do with the Property Investment market.
However, I deeply understand your query and I confirm the following points:

- I am not a bank employee anymore
- I am operating on a personal basis, collecting information for my venture (I haven't started doing business yet)
- I am not regulated by any professional body or Goverment body. I am just an Ezboard user so far
- I would be prepared to identify myself publically if required and also if I've started doing business.

I am aware of Ezboard policy and rules. I won't make any advertise on your website.

Please do not hesitate to contact me for further information.

Regards
Pierre
 
Re: French property

Hi Pierre

I know of a few people including myself, who have been interested in the Leaseback scheme operated in France - there have been a number of discussions on this topic already. So I guess if someone was trying to sell French property, there would be a lot of interest in this scheme.

What is your experience of this scheme ? I have thought about investing, but concerned about the quality (and size) of property and the ability to sell property to achieve reasonable return.
 
Re: French property

Hi

I would also be interested in learning more about the leaseback schemes ... any chance of a few of the previous links on this thread please ?

Cheers

G>
www.Rpoints.com/newbie
 
Here are 2 that I found quite easily. If you have a read yourself down thru the Property Investment section you may find some more


(also contains info on leaseback)
 
P1206

I would welcome your comments on what negatives are made against the leaseback systems. The positives are well publicised on any leaseback site selling properties.

Some that I have heard through research:

- Apartments are smaller
- Apartments are not well built
- Hard to sell after the Lease finishes
- Can be difficult gettting out of the lease after it finishes
- French don't invest in them at all

I have my own views on the above which I will update later, but would welcome getting a proper discussion going on this. Anybody else with any positives / negatives

Novice
 
> Re: FRENCH PROPERTY: WOULD YOU BE INTERESTED ?

A good discussion on this topic would be great, i too have read all the websites selling leaseback property in France and it does sound too good to be true, i'm in the market for one of these properties but i don't want to commit to anything until i've talked to someone who's gone through the process and would recommend it or not as the case may be.
Novice Investor, i know you've started the process of buying a property, can you let us know what your impressions so far have been, did you visit the site before buying, are you dealing with the paperwork yourself or have you got a full service agent to do it for you.. etc etc..
Pierre, would you be just selling property or do you plan on giving full service, i.e. dealing with paperwork, mortgage applications, notaries etc..
Very interested in hearing from anyone else who has done this or is interested in doing this and getting their impressions/experiences so far
 
Re: French property

Hi Novice Investor,
Many thanks for your email.
As you said, the positives are well known (however, if any of you need further information on leaseback scheme, please feel free to ask me your questions) so here are some advice before moving further in your investment.

You’re right, a lot of residences have been built rapidly in the past and unfortunately the apartments were not well built. What’s more, all the apartments have the same size (sometimes small indeed).
I would advise to those who are interested in Leaseback scheme to buy an apartment in a residence which is not only dedicated to leaseback scheme, that means to invest in a “mixt-residence”, i.e. a residence composed with permanent tenants & landlords.
This is a very important point in order to keep the residence in a good quality value (the permanent landlords & tenants are very actives in France in order to control and maintain the quality of their property) and also to get a normal size apartment, or the size of your choice.

I would also advise you to check firstly the management company (its apartment’s portfolio and its financial situation) and secondly the property’s market in the area concerned with your investment.

Be careful of the contract you are going to sign with the management company, and particularly if you want to get back out of the lease during and/or after the 9 years period.
It can’t be difficult to do so if everything is clearly stated on the contract.

In relation to your question about the interest of French people in Leaseback scheme, French are more interested in “De Robien law” rather than “Residence de tourisme” or also called Leaseback scheme.
Basically, De Robien decree mainly enables investors to deduce from their rental income 8% of the property price in the first 5 years and 2.5% during each of the 10 subsequent years.
The conditions are quite stringent. It only applies to new properties, which are rented for a minimum of 9 years, under somewhat market rental rates.
While this may be attractive for a heavily taxed French resident, it offers little benefit to non-resident investors.

I hope you’ve got the information you needed.

Pierre
 
Re: French property

Hi Bill,
I won't make any advertising on this website, but as soon as my venture is set up, I will definitely give a full service, as I've clearly noticed that Irish people are completely lost with paper works, contracts, french law, management companies,... french law is too much complex.

For the moment, I would be pleased to give information on this website (and only information).

Pierre
 
Re: French property

Thanks Pierre,

I would certainly be prepared to pay for a good quality service that would set me up correctly, please let us know where you would recommend buying in France and Why.. Also, when do you think you might start your new venture
 
Re: French property

Bill,

I am buying through an agency in the UK and they are looking after the paperwork for me etc.. ( pretty much what Pierre is thinking about setting up from Ireland ).

I did a site visit as I felt I should approach this property investment as I would one here in Ireland, and also to get a view on what type of people, I was dealing with. The foundations had not even started so from an apartment perspective it was as good just looking at the pictures

So far the experience has been good. However I did pick up on a few things from a cash flow perspective when I talked to the agent in France.

1. 30% has to be paid over when Mortgage is signed. Staged payments are also in place, which means paying interest on what is drawn down and no rent to cover it.
2. The accoutants fee has to be paid for upfront for 1st 3 years.
3. Near full mortgages are availabe, as opposed to the 80% which is mostly advertised.

As I say these are not hidden charges but need to be taken into account when budgetting for property.

You can currently get fixed mortgages for 4.7% for 20 years, which is great compared to here.

From what I gather commissions for estate agents or there agencies are included in the price. The Real Estate Agent gets 10%, and they pay their agent 5%. Pierre , would you agree that these are the typical rates.
 
Re: French property

Bill,
I would let you know as soon as I've started my new venture.
We keep in contact.

There are plenty of places where you can invest in your own property. Fortunately, France offers several destinations for tourists who want to visit the country (The South, West, Middle).
As I've said previously to Novice Investor (which doesn't seem to be novice at all in relation to the information he has provided ! By the way Good luck with your project Novice Investor !), make sure you will buy a property in a place where demands for apartments are high (sea and montains are not the only things you have to take into consideration. Check the activities set up all year, festivals, ...as well)

Pierre
 
Re: French property

Thanks for the update guys, Novice Investor, do you mind me asking what part of France you're buying in and how did you make your location decision, from the websites there is much available and they all look good on paper, might be a different story in reality.
Pierre, I'm looking for a long term investment, 15-20 yrs so as you say a good management company with a good track record is Key, where do you find such information. I know thr Internet is good but you can't believe everything you read..!!
 
Re: Re: French property

Well, there is a very useful website which provides company financial statements (www.societe.com).
It offers a free service (a short summary of the company's financial situation) and if you want to check the financial statements further, you'll have to pay for it.
The main problem is that this website is only in French... so I hope you will able to analyse figures, even if they are not translated in english !

Check also the fees charged by the management company, they have to be clearly stated and the company has also to be registered in the Chamber of Commerce.

Ask for visiting some previous apartments sold by the company, in order to check if they are well maintained.

Pierre
 
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