Overlooking The Hôtel De Ville

Last week, Jocelyn Carnegie returned the IL Paris Office official digital camera and said…”I saw the most amazing apartment on the Quai aux Fleurs, but it’s very expensive — 3.3 million Euros!”

If you click to the Web site now, you’ll see the view he saw from the window of the apartment of the Hôtel de Ville across the river. What you can’t see is the large square Jacuzzi tub, the large spacious rooms, the elegant marble columned hall, etc., etc., in 245 square meters (2,637 square feet) on the Ile de la Cité overlooking the Right Bank and the Ile Saint-Louis. Heaven.

Of course, this is not the “usual” property Jocelyn scouts for our clients, who dream of their “petit pied-à-terre” in Paris…but properties like this don’t come along very often, either! So, naturally, we can’t help but dream a little ourselves and wonder what person of fame and/or fortune will be moving in their crystal and silverware to something this luxurious.

Jocelyn spends most of his days viewing apartments all over Paris in just about every conceivable price range and neighborhood. He’s also in contact with agencies all over France for those who’d rather be sunning at a stone farmhouse in Provence or growing grapes in a vineyard in Bordeaux. Since there is no Multiple Listing Service in France, finding property is a difficult task, even for the most astute French person, much less foreigners who have limited vacation time.

He’s also in contact with the lending institutions that specialize in mortgages to non-residents. Rates right now are at an all time low — some as low as 3.25% — and to foreigners, they will lend up to 80%. In this week’s French Property Insider, I wrote about how he and I learned that legal tax-paying residents of France can get mortgages of 110% for investment property — like apartments designated for rental and not for personal use. This means that there’s no down payment and the Notaire fees are covered!

(Jocelyn Carnegie is our Property Sales Manager — and he’ll be at Parler Paris Après Midi tomorrow, so come to learn more about what he does and how he can help you fulfill your dreams to live in France.

Purchasing property in France can be a complicated process. Inheritance laws on property in France supercede any will you might have Stateside or elsewhere and taxes on property can be difficult to understand the tax base rates. In this week’s issue, Jean Taquet advised: “It is important to know that two local taxes, the lodging tax (taxe d’habitation) and property tax (taxe foncière), are calculated according to who lives in or owns a given property on January 1 of a given year. Thus, if you’re planning to move into a rental property or buy a property near the year’s end, it could be useful to delay the contract signing for a few days, until after the first of the year, to avoid paying the lodging tax for this year.”

All of this valuable information is the reason that we started publishing French Property Insider last year. It’s designed to educate you so that if and when you’re in the market for that “petit pied-à-terre” (or that million-Euro penthouse), you’ll have all the “connaissance” you’ll need to sail through it without a hitch. And it’s designed to bring you properties on the market today — listings of some of our best finds, whether they come through the agencies or individual “for sale by owners.”

French Property Insider comes to you weekly — devoted to sharing insights, recommendations, tips, and discoveries about property in both Paris and France. It’s sure to save you untold time and money, but more importantly, it will help you realize your dream. Visit the site for more information or click here for this week’s issue and not waste a single moment.

A la prochaine…

Adrian Leeds
Editor, Parler Paris
E-mail: [email protected]

P.S. Want to learn more about the French Leaseback program — where your investment is guaranteed a return of more than 5%? You’ll get a free Leaseback report when you subscribe and we will keep you updated on the newest Leaseback properties on the market today. Click here to invest in France.