According to an article
on 19 May 2011 in UFC Que Choisir - the most important French consumer
association - referring to the French statistical office INSEE, property prices
have increased by 141% between 1998 and 2011 (i.e. if a property was worth €100,000
in 1998, it would be worth €241,000 in 2011). Compared with households'
available revenue, property prices have increased 40% over the same period (i.e.
a drop in purchasing power). Rent increases, on the other hand, have been closer
to salary increases. These figures are national averages. There can be
significant regional variations.
UFC Que Choisir conclude that for this reason, it is no longer attractive to
buy to let. The annual return on investment in terms of annual rent was only
4.6% of the purchase price in 2006, whereas it was 7.4% in 1996. These are gross
figures before deduction of property tax (taxe foncière) and other
charges, notably maintenance.
However, the financial crisis and the euro crisis have stopped this tendency
in 2012, the year that saw a stagnation of French real estate prices, and a drop
of close to 25% of the number of properties sold. This is the nationwide
average. Before buying, you need to look at any specific tendencies in your
region, specifically in Paris and the Riviera where the national average does
not apply. It has become difficult to sell certain properties in the Dordogne,
for example, a département that was popular with British expats. Some are looking
at huge losses if they want to sell these properties. Prospective buyers hold
back because they expect prices to fall, while sellers are often unwilling to
reduce the price as much as it is necessary to sell. This has frozen a good deal
of the market.
Estate agents (realtors) have had to lay off staff. Some of them try to
avoid the risk of having to pay a regular salary by contracting with
self-employed people, but the latter often realise that they don't have nearly
enough professional training and knowledge, and that they end up simply spending
a lot of money driving around to show properties without selling anything. These
semi-professional agents may not be able to advise you properly about everything
you need to know before investing in real estate in France.
Don't expect French property to be a good investment if you only look at the
financial side, unless you really know what you are doing in a specific
location. If it is for your enjoyment, and if it doesn't matter for you that
prices may drop in the future, then France is still an attractive holiday
location. Just don't expect to make a killing, and be sensitive and don't pour
all your savings into a French property. The good thing is that if the property
value doesn't increase, then there is no capital gains tax the day you sell it.
French standards for buildings, particularly thermal insulation, electrical
safety and other safety matters may seem to a Nordic to evolve at a snail's
pace. Someone from a Nordic country may often find himself set back 20 years or
more when comparing French and Nordic building quality. For many French owners,
particularly those who have constructed to rent, the motto seems to be to
systematically use the cheapest materials. If they can save €50 on a
circuit breaker that isn't strictly mandatory, then they'll rather save the €50
and risk that the house burns down because of a short circuit or that someone is
electrocuted.
There is no obligation to bring existing electrical installations up to
standard when new standards are introduced. That means that there is a number of
old houses with very old and hazardous electric installations because they
haven't been touched since the installation was put in. You can find fuses where
the fuse is a lead wire that has to be screwed in manually, popularly called fusibles
tabatières. On such an old installation, it may not even be known which
power rating the lead wire fuse has to be, and a careless person who finds it
difficult to find these rare lead wires in shops could easily just screw in a
piece of copper wire that won't melt in case of a short circuit, meaning a cable
elsewhere in the house could go on fire.
Even on a house built as recently as 1995, I realised that only half the
installation was protected by a 30 mA differential circuit breaker. That means
that if a child put a finger in a bulb socket, there would be no security to
save the child from electrocution. According to the electrician who put in
another circuit breaker to protect the entire installation as soon as I realised
this, that was legal in 1995.
Both buyers and tenants need to beware of such potential safety issues. For a
buyer, the issue is the cost of bringing the installation up to standard. For a
tenant, the issue is convincing the landlord to bring the installation up to
standard. Even though the electricity norms don't oblige the landlord to do it,
the tenant car refer to Law
number 89-462 Article 6 that says that rented property must be of a
"decent" standard that doesn't expose the tenant to health and safety
risks, and Decree
number 2002-120 that details the standards for a "decent"
dwelling. However, if the landlord appears unwilling to respect his obligations
from the start, it is better not to rent his property, as the relations risk
being troubled from day one.
When
purchasing a property overseas you will need to transfer money. Using your local UK high
street bank is usually one of the most expensive ways of doing it. Exchange rates and
commissions offered by UK high street banks are significantly less favourable than
those typically offered by specialist foreign exchange brokers, and many banks
are not transparent about the amount of commissions directly or indirectly
debited.
In addition to a flat fee, you would typically lose about 3% of the
amount transferred by a UK bank. For £100,000, that amounts to £3,000, enough to
pay for half a fitted kitchen. Ask
your bank for a quote and compare their rate with the European
Central Bank rate to check this. Your bank may tell you that this is the
interbank rate and that nobody can obtain that. But for some reason, if you use
a Danish bank to transfer and change pound sterling, you will lose only about
0.2% plus a flat fee of a few pounds. Ask yourself what happens to the 2.8%.
It would be a lot of trouble to open a Danish bank just to transfer money
to France, so the next best solution is a currency broker such as
Foreign Currency Direct.
An estimate of the typical savings are in the region of 1% to 2%, or £1,000 to £2,000
saved for every £100,000 transferred.
Foreign Currency Direct provide good service and competitive exchange rates. By using them for your international
money transfers, you indirectly support Streetwise-France.com, a
site that is free to use but not to provide. All you have to do is contact them
using one of the links or banners on Streetwise-France.com, or simply tell them
you found out about them on Streetwise-France.com. However, in all fairness to my
readers, since it is a main principle of this site that advertising should not
exclude other information, there is a list of other money transfer
companies on this page.
Buy-property-from-owner.
Information about buying directly from the owner without an estate agent
(realtor). In English. The French
Property Daily. Online news about French property. In English.
Water
quality. This government site shows the test results of drinking water for
all public water networks.
Risk
Map. Maps and lists of risks commune by commune for the entire France.
Flooding, earthquake, industrial, forest fires etc. Map
of polluting sites. Radioactivity map.
Map of radioactivity levels.
Official crime figures for France by département (county). Before
renting or buying property, it may be a good idea to find out how the crime
figures are for that area. However, within a given crime statistics area, crime
may obviously vary a lot with local conditions. Talking to the locals is
sometimes the only way of finding out if a particular area is in a crime area.
Locate a parking space for short or long term use online: oumegarer.com
CIL
(Comité Interprofessionnel de Logement). Schemes associated with Action
Logement to help renting or buying property, particularly when moving because of
work. The CILs are regionally organised. This link has a directory of the CILs.
Alliance Sud
Expertise. Real estate specialists in Gard, Hérault and Vaucluse:
Measuring, reports (lead, asbestos, termites), valuations etc. Batirenover. Help
and advice for building renovation. Bluebluesky.net. Help
and advice for building renovation and property purchase. Parisrealestatefinders.com.
House hunting service (rent & buy), help
and advice for property purchase in Paris. Former lawyer and former doctor from
New York find property to your specifications. Directory-france.com.
Directory listing English-speaking businesses and individuals offering services
related to French property or France French Property
News. Information in English about French real estate. Mopimmo. Index of
many estate agents. Links to regional real estate ad sites.
For holiday rentals, please go to the travel
part of this site.
Note: In principle, estate agent sites would fit here, but because of the
vast number of estate agents in France, it is impossible to include them. In
order not to discriminate, I will therefore not list any, although it cannot be
guaranteed that a few will not slip through the net. Any site that can
reasonably be characterised as a portal or property search or information site
of general interest will be listed.
NOTE: I discourage paying any fees,
whether by credit card or premium rate phone numbers, for watching ads or
obtaining contact information, something practised by a few sites.
TIP: On some
of the sites below, such as for example seloger.com, you can only obtain contact
details for the estate agent if you call the site's premium rate phone number,
or if you wait a few days until the contact details are shown. Annoying, isn't
it? Either it's a rip-off, or someone else gets in front of the queue. Well,
there is a way around it which is entirely free and legal. Seloger.com tells you
the company number of the estate agent. It is 9 digits long and is either called
RCS or SIREN. Sometimes, it may be called SIRET and be 14 digits long. The SIRET
is the same as SIREN/RCS + 5 digits. So if you have a 14-digit SIRET number, the
first 9 digits are the SIREN and also the RCS. Armed with the SIREN/RCS number,
go to www.infogreffe.com,
www.manageo.fr or www.societe.com
to look up the company name. Sometimes you may also find their phone number
there. Otherwise, use the yellow pages at www.pagesjaunes.fr
to look up the phone number. If that doesn't work either, try to Google them or
guess the name of their website.
Bilingual sites in English and French
Main country-wide sites with good search facilities and choice
LesClesDuMidi.com. Property
to buy and let. Same
company as Mopimmo.
La Fôret.
Large estate agent chain. Property to buy and let. Multilingual site.
Immostreet. Property to buy and let. Certain
ads the same as Seloger.
Sites with specific focus or with simplistic search facilities, little
choice or regional only
Agent-immobilier-france. Property to buy.
Demeures. Property to
buy. Specialises in larger properties, historic buildings, châteaux.
Demeures-de-charme.
Person to person. Property to
buy. Specialises in larger properties, historic buildings, châteaux.
Part of De Particulier à Particulier.
Emile Garcin.
Estate agents. Prestigious real estate in Provence, Paris, Côte Basque,
Riviera, Deauville, Bordeaux, Lyons.
France-property-and-information.com.
French property for sale. Multilingual. French
Connections. Property to buy.
French Property
Links. Property to buy.
French Property
News. Property to buy.
GP Immo. Also
known as Pierre Immo. Property
to buy. GP Immo lists many agencies' properties on a commission basis so the
agents you contact will actively search for you. This is inspired on the
American model.
ImmoFrance.
Property to buy and let. Multilingual. Immogo. Property to buy
directly from the owners without estate agent (realtor). Multilingual. Property-France.
Property to buy directly from the owners without estate agent (realtor).
Multilingual. Seymour
James. Property to buy. Limited choice and only crude search facility.
Sites in French
Main country-wide sites with good search facilities and choice
A vendre A louer. Property to
buy and let.
Appelimmo. Person
to person (no agents). Property to buy.
Le Bon Coin. Free
classified ads. Property to
buy and let.
Cheznous. Property
to buy and let.
Explorimmo. Property to buy and let.
FNAIM. Large
organisation of more then 8000 estate agents. Property to buy and let. The other
language versions of this site are severely incomplete.
L'Internaute.
Property to buy and let.
Logic Immo. Property to buy and let.
Site regrouping ads from several agents.
Mon-adresse. Property to buy and let.
Openmedia. Property to buy and let.
SeLoger. One
of the most important sites. Property to buy and let. Certain ads the same
as Immostreet.
Topannonces. Property to buy and let. Wikipit.
This site crawls the web for property ads and lists everything found.
Sites with specific focus or with simplistic search facilities, little
choice or regional only
123ici.com. Property to buy and let.
123immo. Property to
buy and let.
4immobilier.
Estate agent network in parts of France. Property to buy and let.
A3inet. Property to
buy.
Abonim. Property to
buy and let. Adoos. Free ads.
Property to buy and let. Agoradom. Property to
buy and let. Covers only parts of France.
Annoncenet. Property to
buy and let. Part of the Mixad network.
AnnoncesJaunes.
Property to buy and let from the publisher of Pages Jaunes - the French Yellow
Pages.
Annonciade.
Property to buy and let. Part of the Mixad network.
Aparapar. Person to
person (no agents). Property
to buy and let.
Appart-in-france.
Property to buy and let.
Bureaux-commerces. Commercial property only.
Centreimmo.
Property in Auvergne, Bourgogne, Centre and Limousin.
Chateaux-belles-demeures. Property to
buy. Specialises in larger properties, historic buildings, châteaux.
French version of property-for-sale-in-france.fr.
Colocation. In
French. Share rented property with others.
Craigslist
France.
Free classifieds.
Directgestion.
Property to buy. Focus on real estate for investment.
Entreparticuliers.com. The company owning this site, and its director,
were fined 165,000 euros for misleading advertising on the 2 July 2009 and
ordered to pay a total of 36,865 euros in damages. Only use this site for browsing ads. Do not post ads (which may end up being much more
expensive than you thought) and do not call premium rate phone numbers.
Eurimmo. Property to buy and let.
Evannonce. Property to buy and let.
Focusfrance. Property
to buy. Gratissimmo.
Person to person (no agents).
Property to buy and let.
Immo-free.
Property to buy and let.
Immoabc. Property to
buy and let.
Immoannonce.
Property to buy and let. Part of the Mixad network.
Immorapide.
Property to buy and let.
Immo-web.
Property to buy and let.
Journaldesparticuliers.
Property to buy and let.
Kel-koloc. Share
rented property with others.
Lodgis. Apartments in Paris for sale or rental, furnished or unfurnished. Maisons du Sud. Property to buy
in southern France.
OLX. Free. Property to buy and let.
ORPI. Organisation of estate agents. Property to buy and let.
Only few ads.
Ouestfrance-immo. Property to
buy and let. Only Bretagne, Basse-Normandie, Pays de la Loire.
Parténaire Européen.
Person to person. Property to buy.
Particulier. Person to person. Property to buy and let.
De Particulier à Particulier. Person to person. Property to buy and let.
ParuVendu. Property to buy and let.
Proprietes de
France. Prestige real estate to buy. Reflex-immo. Property to buy and let.
Residences-secondaires.
Secondary homes to buy.
Le Site Immo. Property to buy and let.
LeSiteImmobilier. Property to buy and let.
Owned by Priceminister.com
Sitimmo. Property to buy and let.
Sudouest-immo. Property to buy and let.
Aquitaine and neighbouring areas.
Trefle. Free ads.
Sites in English
Main country-wide sites with good search facilities and choice
Sites with specific focus or with simplistic search facilities, little
choice or regional only
123immo. Property to
buy and let.
Creme-de-Languedoc.com.
Languedoc-Rousillon: Property to buy. Easyfrenchlife.
Property to buy. Aims to list only owners advertising directly without agent.
Findhomeabroad. Property to buy.
Francepropertyshop. Property to buy. Franimo. Property to buy.
Focus on older, authentic properties, often in need of repair. Property-for-sale-in-france. Property to
buy. Specialises in larger properties, historic buildings, châteaux. English
version of chateaux-belles-demeures.com.
Myfrenchproperty. Property to buy and
let A network of estate agents in south west France.