Owning a holiday let in France - tell me the good, the bad and the ugly

[KittyMcMitty]

We live next to France in a neighboring country and spend a lot of holidays and weekends in France.

We are toying with the idea of buying a holiday let, either in a ski resort or in Provence.

The owners of the last Air BnB we stayed in are on their 3rd property and I am keen to investigate whether this could be a nice little side number to our existing (and very busy) day-jobs.

A colleague has a ski chalet which does very well all year round and there seemingly is still enough opportunity for him and his family to use it too.

I’m starting to research it all, so thought I’d also ask on MN. Any other French holiday let owners here? I’m keen to hear how you find it… Is it just a money pit / massive hassle? Or is it worth it?

PILs have a holiday home in the south of france so can help a little although not fully up on all the financials. They are forever complaining about it TBH although also they have kept it for 20 years and absolutely love spending holidays there with all the GC so it must be worth it in the end! Theirs is a nice family sized villa with pool in a quiet village, not in one of the super-fashionable locations but popular enough with tourists, nothing super-swanky or deluxe about it but comfortable and well-equipped. It rents out easily and solidly for the school holidays season July-August and this pretty much covers its costs for the whole year, it does OK and attracts a few paying guests April-June and September (this is when PIL and the family largely use it), but then is largely empty 6 months of the year - PILs have a local couple who do the garden, pool maintenance and cleaning/housekeeping between guests plus keep an eye on it when empty, and the whole thing pretty much breaks even so effectively 'free' holiday accommodation for them and any family that want to use it which is a really lovely thing to have, although since they never use it for non-paying guests during school holidays it was of limited use to us during the years we were confined by term times... as I say they do constantly worry and gripe about the maintenance of it, dealing with french tradespeople, understanding local regulations and paperwork, the security, a few times guests have had complaints (largely about the pool/broken filter etc) which have been stressful to try and resolve from afar so do bear all that in mind.

I'd look into the financials very very carefully, plus consider how much you want to be tied to that one location for holidays forever, obviously if you are a skiing family and you do go twice a year every year your own chalet might be worth it (but consider if you'd want to go in the popular times yourself e.g. half terms, your profit will be affected)... don't forget to factor in regular maintenance of the building itself and all the fixtures/fittings will tend to take a battering and need regular replacing too. In 20 years PIL have been really lucky and largely had very respectful guests who have looked after the place well but like I say they are in a quiet, family friendly location with the nearest bar a 30 min walk away, I can imagine it's a very different kettle of fish in a happening ski resort!

the ugly

• taxes
• inheritance law
• bureaucracy

90 day per year only unless you get a specific visa/are eu citicen.

Thanks @maxelly thats useful. For the summer places I’m conscious the season is short with rentals probably only really from May to September. Good points about being tied to one place, and I’d be looking to make a profit rather than just break even so need to look at the maths carefully!

We ski every weekend in winter as it’s all so close to us… Ironically ski resorts seems to have more of a year round thing actually, or summer and winter at least with a bit of a hiatus in spring and autumn…

@greenacrylicpaint we don’t plan to live there so I don’t think the visas are an issue. We are tied to work and school so doubt we’d hit 90 days anyway. Can you tell me more about the tax and IHT?