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Potential purchasers open up the rental market
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By Peter Clayton
08 Sep, 2006 |
The short and medium term property rental market in France is no longer merely restricted to the holiday trade. Naturally, during the summer months and periods which coincide with school holidays, the majority of rentals in the most popular tourist areas of the country are for the annual vacation. But outside that short “peak” season, an industry has steadily emerged which caters for the prospective property purchaser - those looking for their own holiday home, investment property or full-time retirement accommodation.
Owners who live close to their rental properties are only too happy to accommodate such people, as it fills their gites, albeit at a reduced rental, when peak-time holiday makers are merely planning their next summer break. And owners too have found that they can charge an “added value” premium by offering a property search facility.
Tony Brown, a Brit who has owned a gite complex in St Sauveur le Vicomte on the Cherbourg Peninsula for the past few years takes up the story: “When we first moved here, we were lucky to rent out each of our gites for more than 12 weeks a year... and naturally enough the majority of those 12 weeks were in peak season - Spring Bank Holiday, July, August and the very beginning of September, coinciding with British school holidays.
“There were therefore forty weeks in the year when our gites stood more or less empty, which, of course, is a complete waste of a valuable asset.”
“Hand-holding” service
“After a brain-storming meeting with family, friends and our accountant, we put a small advert in a couple of French property magazines, offering a hand-holding service to potential property purchasers. This simple - and very cheap - initiative has almost doubled our occupancy levels. And because of considerably cheaper rental and ferry costs compared with peak season, this new breed of client is choosing to come out of the main season when we are desperate to fill the place. So everyone wins!
“However, I must emphasise that we do not act as unofficial estate agents - in France that is illegal with hefty fines. We simply do the ground work and introduce clients to the local estate agents and to the area in general.”
As part of this rapidly spreading service, the gite owner usually sends a questionnaire to the clients who are booking accommodation as a base for their property search. On this sheet, the clients can detail the type of property sought, a price range, and the preferred area/location. Prior to arrival, the gite owner researches suitable available property and presents a list to the clients in their welcome pack - thus saving the visitors a considerable amount of time and effort.
Those people who can go out of season to inspect property benefit in many ways. France is less crowded; depending on the chosen region, the weather is invariably much better than that in the UK; and both rental prices and ferry fares are often less than half of those in July and August. As an added bonus, there is obviously a far wider choice of properties available with June or October rental prices for a luxury home similar to July prices for average accommodation.
Most overseas property consultants and estate agents also recommend that prospective purchasers visit their chosen area “out of season” to get a true impression of the place. Their reasoning is that if you like a place in the pouring rain and under grey skies, then you stand a good chance of liking it even more under the summer sun!
Tony Brown adds: “Being on the spot, we obviously know the area well and it doesn’t take long to earn the trust of local estate agents who are very happy with the introductory service we give! Having been through the search process ourselves, we can pass on valuable information to clients and point out advantages and pitfalls with various properties and their locations. Over the years we have also built up a long list of reliable local tradesmen and builders who we can recommend to our clients. In fact, we can point potential purchasers in exactly the right direction where otherwise they would be totally lost! It is just a great pity that somebody didn’t do all this for us when we first looked for property in Normandy - it would have made relocating a whole lot easier!”
Busier times to come
For those already part of the “hand-holding” rental market, things are only going to get busier - France has never been so popular with overseas buyers. According to the country’s National Statistics Office, the number of Brits who now live or work in France has recently topped 600,000. In 2005 more than 52,000 properties were owned by Brits. And it’s not only the traditional “colonies” of the Dordogne region that they are invading... early retirees and younger couples with children are making the move and settling throughout the country - from Brittany, Normandy and Picardy in the north to the Languedoc and the Alps to the south and east.
Further reassurance that the trend is likely to continue for at least the next fifteen years comes from a YouGov survey which recently revealed that a staggering 55 per cent of the UK’s adult population were “seriously considering” settling in another country. Supporting this, the British Centre for Future Studies predicts that by 2020, one-tenth of the current British population will be living or working abroad. After Spain, France is the most popular European choice.
Many of these people will avoid the bureaucratic problems inherent in owning property and opt for long-term renting. In tourist regions, it may be difficult, or at least expensive, to secure a property on a year-round basis because most owners make their biggest profits in the summer months on one or two week holiday lets. But inland from the coast and away from towns and cities which rely heavily on the tourist industry, houses and apartments are readily available - both furnished and unfurnished - for rental periods extending to anything from around three months.
As in the UK, costs vary considerably - a studio apartment in a chic district of Paris or Nice may cost 2000 euros per month, whilst a large family home in a lesser-known part of Aquitaine can be rented for less than a quarter of that cost. But bear in mind, unlike holiday lets, those who take on long-term rentals are invariably responsible for the utility bills.
There are dozens of companies on the internet which specialise in long-term rentals in France – together with the majority of estate agents. Many owners also advertise their properties themselves in such publications as French Property News, but it is certainly advisable to get any binding rental contracts looked over by a legal expert before signing on the dotted line.
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