Buying a holiday home in France - should I?

[Jungfraujoch]

Very tempted and would Airbnb it summer season. Anyone have experience? I have an Airbnb in UK.

My parents own a property in the Dordogne that they live in full-time. It's massive, with lots of land, outdoor and indoor swimming pool, tennis courts, the whole package. It also has a cottage (gîte) on-site which they rent out on Airbnb over the summer.

What I would say about their experience, is that you need to very quickly get yourself well-connected if you want anything done - plumbing, building work etc. French contractors (in their experience - sorry for the generalisation!) are very slow, unreliable, and they will take long periods of time off for the summer. So, you can book work in for months if not years in advance and nothing they've had done has ever run even close to schedule. They've sadly been ripped off massively on several occasions.

Also, things like paint etc. are so much more expensive. They're lucky enough now to have an excellent network but it took a lot of time and they found it incredibly hard-going to begin with. They also haven't rented the gîte out this summer as they needed a break, due to how tough they found the changeovers (no chance of getting a cleaner in in the middle of rural France) when the heat was pushing 40 degrees. They also offered exclusive use of the pool to guests, which they found themselves resenting in the aforementioned heat as lots of the guests would just spend two solid weeks sat by the pool from 9-9. Given the particularly high temperatures this year they haven't regretted that decision at all - but the money is obviously very tempting.

Thank you. Potentially we have someone who would manage it for us who lives here and has good contacts. We live in the UK and would visit out of season probably.

Find out what your Taxe dHabitation and Taxe Fonciere are for the property. These are a resident's tax and a council tax. Can be high Fonciere depending on the area. But maybe that is not too much of an issue for you. Worth finding out though.

I would only consider a property that has good transport links nearby. A completely rural property would not appeal. Trainline/airport within an hour max and nearer if possible widens your market and gives you a bit of freedom to explore without having to drive everywhere.

What part of France are you thinking of?

How long would be visiting for?

If you are UK residents then you can only be in the Schengen zone for a maximum of 90 days in every 180. That would include any visits you made to countries other than France.

www.schengenvisainfo.com/visa-calculator/

As a pp says, getting anything done can be a very long drawn out process (especially in summer).

Thank you for more info. Schengen I’m aware of. We would only come for 2 weeks max at a time maybe 2/3 times a year. Property I’m looking at is in a popular medieval town that doesn’t go to sleep in the off season like some do! 1 hr from airport. Taxes I will check out. Thank you.

I second a past poster in that finding someone in the know in the area to help you is a god sent in these situations. Rural communities function on people knowing someone, or someone inadvertently telling you something that for some reason officials thought was too obvious to mention🙄.

Thank you all for the advice. I’m still tempted!