PARIS: SHOULD I BUY AN APARTMENT TO RENOVATE?
So you would like to buy an apartment in Paris?
Essentially, you have two choices when your goal is to purchase a flat in Paris: do it yourself, or pay an expert to search for you.
Doing it yourself
Do you have a lot of spare time, and a high frustration level? If so, doing it yourself may be the way to find your Paris dream apartment.
This is the age of the Internet, and there are literally hundreds of websites that offer Paris apartments for sale. On these sites you can find facts and photos of apartments for sale. There are sites like www.bellesdemeures.com where agencies list their best properties. To find apartments being sold direct by owners, visit www.pap.fr.
Review the listings of Paris apartments offered for sale – you will find hundreds of them. Choose which properties interest you, and use the contact form to get more information or ask for an appointment to visit.
The good news. You may pay a commission if you purchase through an agency, but you will not need to pay an extra fee for an expert to do the property search for you.
The bad news. First, be prepared to spend a lot of time and to encounter a lot of frustration.
Paris agencies are notorious for being slow to respond to requests, not understanding your search needs, being skimpy on factual details and not being interested in low-budget acquisitions.
Second, France has no multi-list system. An agency will show you only its own listings. To be exposed to every apartment available for sale you will literally have to contact every agency in Paris – and there are several hundred of them.
Finally, while agents at the higher-end Paris real estate companies speak English, many agents have limited English and communication can be difficult.
B. Using an expert
If you wish to avoid the time, frustration and other problems associated with the do-it- yourself method of finding an apartment to buy in Paris, you may engage a professional search agent to conduct the search for you.
A professional apartment hunter offers targeted searches of all apartments available for sale in Paris . A good professional has a vast array of agency contacts and is aware of the best private offerings.
The job of the professional apartment hunter is to conduct a search that is specifically tailored to identifying apartments for sale that conform to your budget, requirements and aesthetic preferences. Included in the search are all apartments available for sale, not just those of a few agencies.
The professional search agent selects properties based on your needs, and sends a preliminary selection of properties to the buyer for review. If the buyer needs additional facts before deciding whether an apartment is worth a visit, the search agent obtains the information. Working together, the buyer and search agent develop a list of apartments that look like good candidates for acquisition. The agent organizes appointments, and when the buyer arrives in Paris, the visits begin.
The professional remains with the buyer through the entire acquisition process, offering expertise in price negotiations, helping with a mortgage application if needed, and overseeing the entire legal process until the sale is complete.
If you wish to maximize your chances of finding the ideal Paris apartment of your dreams, far and away the best way to accomplish this mission is to engage a professional search agent to conduct a targeted search for your Paris apartment purchase.
The good news. The likelihood that your search to buy a Paris apartment will turn out well is maximized to the fullest when you hire a professional search agent. Unless you speak very good French and are willing to commit inordinate amounts of personal time, it is impossible for a regular buyer to duplicate the services a professional agent.
The bad news. The professional search agent will charge a fee, usually 3% of the negotiated sales price of the property. The fee may be higher for lower-priced properties.
Take a look
In sum. With the right help, acquiring a property in France is neither complicated nor difficult. Once you own the property, property taxes and maintenance costs are substantially lower than in many Western countries.
Based on conversations we have had with hundreds of owners who have bought a Paris apartment or other secondary home or investment property in France, we can tell you with total assurance that it is one decision you will never regret.
PARIS FOR INVESTMENT REAL ESTATE
Why not Paris?
Rental apartments needed. It is well known that Paris currently has a severe shortage of rental apartments for residents. Read up on City Metrics reporting on how the housing market in Paris and the strategies the government has put in place to tackle this prominent issue.
In response to the shortage of rental apartments, the government has:
Advantages. Here are some reasons to invest now in a Paris apartment and then rent it for successive one-year terms:
Paris search team. Our Paris search team can help you identify properties that would be especially suitable for investment purposes. The search is less complicated than a personal search because there is a shortage of rental apartments in all neighborhoods, sizes and price ranges, and fewer aesthetic choices are involved than when choosing an apartment for personal use.
Rental rates. Rental rates in Paris are controlled by a law (Loi ALUR) enacted in 2015. The higher the quality of the apartment, the higher the permissible rent per square meter.
Please contact Just France Sales for a consultation or additional information.
One-year leases. You may have heard horror stories of owners forced to resort to litigation to evict non-paying or undesirable tenants. But these concern only tenants whose lease is longer than one year.
PARIS RANKED THIRD FOR GLOBAL INVESTMENT
In a publication entitled “Global Cities Investment Monitor 2015” ,the KMPG study shows that Paris is exceeded only by London and Shanghai in global rankings of cities attractive to investors. By contrast, New York is fifth.
The French capital’s rise from eight place in 2014 to third in 2015 is reflected every day in the offices of Just France Sales. We see Americans and other US-dollar-based buyers buying up residential properties at rates not seen since before the Recession. According to the KMPG study, in 2014 36% of overall investment capital in Paris came from North America.
Favorable developments on the capital gains and inheritance issues
And there’s more good news for property buyers: two long-time thorns have now been removed from the sides of non-French buyers who have bought or are thinking of acquiring second homes in France.
The first is that the 15.5% “social security” tax on capital gains has been removed by order of the European Union Court. The Court found that imposing the tax only on non-French owners violated principles of equal treatment, since unlike French taxpayers, foreigners derived no benefit from French social services.
The second change – a major boon in particular to American buyers – is that non-French buyers can opt out of French inheritance laws and pass on property to their heirs as they choose.
This new European Union regulation is effective August 17, 2015. It allows an owner to create a will in his or her own country, and designate that will as the controlling instrument. Heretofore non-resident owners have been obliged to conform to French inheritance laws that create statutory legacies for certain family members, regardless of the legator’s desires. Heretofore the only way to avoid such laws was to pursue the expensive and somewhat cumbersome remedy of creating a special French real estate corporation (SCI) with at last two shareholders.
The eternal allure of Paris
Finally there is the allure of Paris itself, a city that celebrates a rich and variegated history even as it presses ahead toward new frontiers in art and social ideas. Paris is still the most sought-after tourist destination in the world, yet it is constantly evolving. The fabulous Fondation Luis Vuitton museum in Bois de Boulogne, the gorgeously renovated and universally acclaimed Picasso Museum in the Marais, and development of the “Grand Paris Express” rapid transit line are but three examples of Paris’ being in the forefront of a rapidly changing world.
Good for the soul and good for the portfolio
What else is new in Paris? More bike lanes, yet another Métro line, non-polluting buses, a wave of exciting new restaurants with an Asian flair, a bigger and better Paris Plage on the Seine, all this in addition to the usual cultural feast of avant-garde opera, ballet and theatre. The City of Light continues to reinvent itself in in ways that delight the senses, stimulate the intellect and enrich the soul. That Paris can do this and still be good for your portfolio is a miracle few other cities can match.
PARIS’ NEW ART SURGE: OCTOBER 2014 OPENING OF RENOVATED PICASSO MUSEUM AND OF ARCHITECT FRANK GEHRY’S FONDATION LUIS VUITTON
As noted in the Wall Street Journal and numerous other accounts, the Picasso Museum’s reopening signals a distinct new chapter in its 30-year-history. Political squabbles and staff hostility to the former director, the Picasso scholar Anne Baldassari, are now a thing of the past, and the museum has a new president in Laurent Le Bon, who ran the Pompidou’s affiliate museum in Metz. The renovation will enable the display of some works that exceeded the previous building’s ceiling height. Among the new pieces will be plaster models of Picasso’s lover (and mother of Picasso’s daughter) Marie-Thérèse Walter. Judging from the great number of people – some 13,000 - who previewed the renovated structure in September, the Picasso Museum will be a huge draw for tourists.
And that’s not all the big news for the Paris art scene:
In a defiant riposte to critics who say Paris has fallen behind as a leader in avant-garde art, the super-futuristic Louis Vuitton Foundation museum by architect Frank Gehry is now open for visitors in a park-like setting north of Paris. Not surprisingly given the money and talent involved, Gehry’s imaginative design is a dazzler - a thrilling arrangement of soaring glass panels that from an aerial view resemble a series of glassy clouds, or vertical and horizontal kites filled to swelling by a strong breeze. The surface area of the museum is 11,700 square meters, or 126,000 square feet. New York Times writer Joseph Giovanni said the building resembles a “Cubist sailboat.” as-his-vuitton-foundation-opens.html?ref=design. According to the Times, at the October 20 opening ceremony French President François Hollande described it as a “cathedral of light” and a “miracle of intelligence, creativity and technology.”
The just-completed structure – its official name is the Louis Vuitton Foundation - houses the private collection of luxury goods magnate Bernard Arnaut, chief of LVMH (Louis Vuitton Moet-Hennessey), one of the world’s most celebrated art collectors. Arnault got the Ville de Paris’ accord to build the museum on government land (on the site of a former bowling alley in the Jardin d’Acclimation, created by the city in the 19th century as a children’s park). In return the building will be deeded to the city in 50 years. The museum will give public access to one of the greatest private collections on the globe – a good deal for a city whose economy thrives on tourism.
The Picasso Museum is situated in the Marais quartier of Paris at 5, rue de Thorigny (3rd arr., Métro), tel. +33 (0)1 85 56 00 36. It is closed Saturday through Monday. You will find practical information at http://www.museepicassoparis.fr/en/contacts-map/
The Luis Vuitton Foundation is in the Bois de Boulogne (16th arr.) at 8, avenue de la Mahatma Gandhi, tel. +33-1-40.69.96.00. It is open every day except Tuesday. For information on transportation and parking see http://www.fondationlouisvuitton.fr/Informations-pratiques.html.