Buying and Letting a Vacation Home in France

For a couple of years, from 2003, there was a strong market for Leaseback properties, money was very cheap to borrow and a property could just about finance itself from the guaranteed rentals.

However, as I often say in these blogs, leasebacks should only be considered as an investment, like a bond, they can give an assured return on you capital – they are not a way of having a free holiday home and potential capital gains will not be the same as other types of property purchase.

There are still some excellent leaseback deals and finance can be arranged at attractive rates in France.

But for a real second home in France you should consider investing in an unencumbered property, this needs a lot of skill, advice and research and this is where I can help.

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Hi Tony,

I’m not sure if you covered this in earlier emails but can you recommend a good letting agency?

I’m interested in buying a holiday home in the Languedoc-Roussillon area, I thought about leasebacks but as I have two children there seems to be little scope for occupancy during the school holidays with leasebacks.

So I’m looking at the option of buying with the idea of getting a good letting agency for the unoccupied months.

Thanks,
John

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Hello John,

There are three main points here…

1. Finding a property which is suitable for you and viable for letting in periods when you will not be using it yourself (out of school holidays)

2. Having a local management company able to clean, supervise and let rental clients in, hold keys etc.

3. Having a marketing service to get you bookings.

It is very rare that one agency can do all three of these specialist services successfully.

I have written about all these points in previous newsletters and blogs and I have been directly involved in the development of Internet services for these points since 1996 when we pioneered rentals advertising sites in France, I have a lot of experience in renting vacation properties in Languedoc

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In response to the above points.

1. I can certainly help you find a suitable property – I am a licensed estate-agent in France, the manager of the Coast and Country agency in Languedoc and we work with all reputable agents here. Please let me know…

* What size of property you are looking for – how many bedrooms/bathrooms etc ?
* What budget do you have – do you require finance ?
* Your preferred location – near beaches – countryside – town center – activities or peaceful etc ?
* What style of property are you looking for – traditional stone town house, modern villa or a country property

2. The people cleaning and looking after your property must be local and must be legal, insured and reliable – I do know some excellent teams offering these services (and many bad ones). It depends on the area whether I can help with this.

3. Getting bookings – this will depend on where you buy a property – the location is critical, a remote country cottage can get good summer bookings, but will have a shorter season than a popular resort of town property. Generally the nearer the sea the longer the season. Getting bookings is very competitive now, we have seen big changes in the last ten years as more properties come onto the rentals market. Foe example, the market for a village house is over-supplied and where we would have expected from 15 to 20 weeks rental in 1999 you would now be lucky to get 6 weeks. Villas with pools are in demand for the summer season, but are getting much harder to let from October to May.

Our skills are in Internet marketing and we can certainly assist and advise you on this, we have many special advertising offers through our ability to negotiate large volumes of properties with the leading rental sites.

Please give me some more information and I can give you some ideas about costs, investment and the returns you should be looking for.

I look forward to hearing from you

Sincerely

Tony