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Reasons to Consider the Riviera

Volume XVII, Issue 17

Typical Niçois homes

The new Nice TramwayThe new Nice Tramway

The Nice property market has been relatively flat since I made my apartment purchase in 2011. The reasons for that are beyond my comprehension, considering all the improvements the city administration has made to the city, including the addition of a new tramway, the Promenade de Paillon, Eco-Valley and others. The city is more vibrant than ever and life here improves on a daily basis, as a result of all the city’s efforts to do just that — improve the Niçois lifestyle.

Some of the reasons comes from taxes imposed on Italian second-home owners — 9 percent of the “cadastral declared value” of the property is assessed (with €1,000 as the minimum payment due), a land registry and a cadastral tax are fixed at €50 each, plus stamp duty on secondary residences. Henceforth, Italian owners, plentiful in the Côte d’Azur, were forced (or at least encouraged) to sell their vacation homes, placing a glut of property on the market. Considering the basic laws of supply and demand, this has kept inventory up and prices down.

Does that make it good time to make a purchase in the area? Yes! Prices can’t stay down forever and a good inventory makes choices wide open. Consider, too, that prices on the Riviera are half of what you can expect in Paris while rental laws are less restrictive. Let’s also not forget how life on the Riviera can be so fulfilling — with an international airport providing access to anywhere in the world, the Mediterranean Sea at your toes, mild and sunny weather and a casual lifestyle that makes even semi-retirement feel like heaven. Even though I’m a full-time working fool, the time I spend in Nice feels more like vacation, with a slower pace and a sunnier disposition on everyone’s faces. No, it’s not quite the cultural Mecca of Paris, but it has its own worthwhile attributes, lending itself to a more sportive lifestyle with a lot less stress.

The Chambre de Notaires of France regularly report sales statistics for real estate all over France. The following price information is data collected from October 1, 2018 through December 31st, 2018. Source: Notaries of France – PERVAL database

Median Price Homes in the Alpes-MaritimesMedian Price Homes in the Alpes-Maritimes

Median Price Homes per square meter in the Alpes-MaritimesMedian Price Homes per square meter in the Alpes-Maritimes

Median Per Square Meter for Apartments in the Alpes-MaritimesMedian Per Square Meter for Apartments in the Alpes-Maritimes

Median Per Square Meter for Apartments in the Alpes-MaritimesMedian Per Square Meter for Apartments in the Alpes-Maritimes

HOUSE SALES

The median price of a house in the Alpes-Maritimes (Department 06) is 443,500€.

Price trends:
-evolution of median prices over 3 months of 3.1%
-evolution of median prices over a year of 6.9%
-evolution of median prices over 5 years of 7.1%

Sales breakdown:
-17.7% of houses from 1 to 3 rooms
-26.8% of 4-room houses
-22.4% of 5-room houses
-33.1% of houses of 6 rooms and more

Market conditions: prices fluctuate within a range between 318,000€ and 628,000€

APARTMENT SALES

The median price of an apartment in the Alpes-Maritimes (Department 06) is 3,790€ per square meter (/m2).

Price trends:
-evolution of median prices over 3 months of 1.6%
-evolution of median prices over a year of 0.5%
-evolution of median prices over 5 years-0.6%

Sales breakdown:
-21.2% of studios
-33.4% of apartments of 2 rooms
-30.2% of 3-room apartments
-12.0% of 4-room apartments
-3.3% of apartments of 5 rooms and more

Market conditions: prices fluctuate within a range between 3,000€/m2 and 4,770€/m2.

The average mortgage rate of interest is 1.5%.

Here’s where you can really have some fun! Spend time with the interactive charts.

Notes on the role of the Notaire: Real estate expertise is a traditional activity of the French Notaire because the value of real estate is at the heart of every real estate project. The assessment and evaluation of the real estate advisor allows Notaires to assist and defend their clients in situations as diverse as donations, community settlements, inheritance, wealth tax, tax adjustments, etc. He is competent to evaluate all types of real estate (houses, apartments, land, building, etc.). He uses different methods depending on the case (capitalization, comparison, balance sheets, etc.) and relies on proprietary tools such as notarial real estate databases.

The Notaires of France provide you with free real estate prices for houses, apartments and land throughout France. Based on the sales prices and the pre-sale agreements recorded in their databases of real estate references, the Notaires allow you to find real real estate prices by city, by district and by department. The real estate barometer of the Notaires gives you the latest trends in the real estate market.

The Notaire is the only professional to offer his clients three sales methods: the classic sale, the auction and the sale in Immo-Interactif®. It is also the only one to take care of all the legal procedures, thus offering, in addition to a guarantee of security, the simplicity of a single intermediary by intervening at all the stages of the sale: evaluation of the property, taking of the mandate, publication of real estate announcements, drafting of the pe-sale agreement and the authentic deed. The Notaire is competent throughout the French territory for any type of property: houses, apartments, land, buildings, businesses, local activities, agricultural or wine real estate.

To assist you in your real estate projects, Notaires provide you with various online calculation tools, whether to estimate the taxes due to the administration, the registration fees or to consider a dissolution of property: the calculation of expenses of the acquisition (Notaire fees), calculation of real estate values, calculation of the life annuities and the life annuities, calculation of the usufruct and the bare ownership.

For this reason, there is no need for an attorney outside of a Notaire to represent you. But I do suggest you employ your own Notaire to represent you in all transactions, apart from the buyer or seller’s legal counsel. They will split the fees, costing you not a penny more to be well represented.

A bientôt,

Adrian Leeds - Nice beach, Feb 2019

Adrian Leeds
Adrian Leeds Group

(Nice beach, Feb 2019)


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Adrian Leeds Group House Hunters International - Paris By the Books

P.S. Don’t forget this Sunday, April 28, House Hunters International re-airs “Paris by the Books” at 11pm ET and Monday April 29 2am ET. Set your DVRs now!

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