Searching for a house in France

[Whatwouldbuffydo]

Hi, I'm hoping to buy a house in France in the next few years and was wondering if anyone could offer me any advice? Initially I'd like to rent it out through an agency as a holiday let. However, in the longer term I'd like to spend more time in France and hopefully even retire over there in the (much longer!) term.

All the research I've done implies that I won't get huge returns and that the property market in France is much slower than in the UK if I want to sell up in the future. I'm very much going into this with my eyes open (I think!) I'm just hoping to find a property that can mostly cover the mortgage and upkeep, with me supplementing this from my income when needed.

I'm still very much in the research and saving up for the deposit stage of this plan but am anticipating a budget of approx £200k. I was just wondering if anyone with experience of buying in France/living in France might be able to offer me some advice? I'm currently focused on the Languedoc-Roussilon region and would like to buy somewhere as close to the coast as possible. Visiting is difficult at the moment due to covid so I'm finding it hard to decide on an area.

I have mainly been looking at what is available on the Leggett Immobilier site but I was wondering if anyone could recommend any other property sites? I am finding it difficult to find many properties in the coastal towns I'm interested in(Sete, Argeles-sur-mer, Agde etc). I'm not sure whether there isn't much available there or whether it is just being advertised elsewhere.

I have been quite set on buying in the Languedoc but am also starting to wonder whether I would be better to go for somewhere inland that was cheaper but close to a lake with a beach for watersports and beach days.

I'd be really grateful for any advice, especially as covid makes any trips over to France tricky at the moment!
Thanks very much

Employer's NI is at 70% this year. It means that a workman paid the minimum wage of around 10€-11€/hr is charged out at 400€/day.

Back in 2007-8 this was 250€/day and the quality of the workmanship was crap. The really good work we had done was done by Brits. My uncle was born in France in the Somme and just could not understand the mentality in the SW.

You can, or could, deduct 10% of the bill for snagging. But, if the work qualifies for a credit impôt you have to pay 100%.
The scheme seems to be designed to keep firms in business, provide tax revenue - and stop cash in hand - and not necessarily the best for the building.

A friend in his 50s said that he used to do business on a handshake, but no more, as he's been done too many times. And he's French.

We bought a village house in '07 for 160€, spent 120k€ on renovations, and due to the slide in the pound never got the pool we' d planned, and sold in '18 for 155,500€.
At Dec' 06 values we had 440k €, but the pound dropped to parity, which made a huge difference.

I'd be tempted to use a management company for a rental, like Sykes in the UK, and you'll need to take advice from a firm of international accountants which won't come cheap.

The French finances publics are very helpful, but are having massive retirements at the moment. I used to know all the local tax inspectors, and with the introduction of a Paye type system in France, in place of prior year there have been teething troubles.

I noticed that income in £ on one form hadn't been pulled through to the general form and the controller I saw was quite young, and had never had dealings with foreign income before and asked me which box it should go into on the main form. Despite all the distancing etc, we ended up pouring over the 1-inch thick tax manual together.

Obviously Covid hasn't helped.

I live as a tenant in a house that has suffered bad conversion as a result of the tax credit. Double glazing has been installed for the 25% credit where the single glazing allowed the sun to heat the house. Insulated shutters were available, expensive and only got a 5% or 10% credit, if that. The result is a sweaty humid hermitically sealed box that is damp in both winter and summer.

You could well end up having to shell out money to undo work that should never have been done in the first place.

Good luck