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Everything you always wanted to know about France |
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I really do try to reply to all mail, most are questions about property or living in France. I publish comments in this newsletter which I believe are of interest and may help find answers to questions put by others wanting to come to France. By linking the points I make to our weblog at http://www.fblog.com Fblog I hope readers will click on the adverts which help support our overheads.
Our business is our advertising sites for property and rentals at http://rentalsfrance.com/ RentalsFrance http://francevoila.com/ France voila Please make use of these sites for rentals and sales (and do click on the adverts). ======= 1. Of Aire and Angels 2. All UK property Prices 3. We Want To Invest In French Property 4. Calculating Capital Gains Tax 5. Problems With Our Leaseback 6. Resale Of Leasebacks 7. Do I Have To Wear a Speedo 8. Sky TV In France ======= 1. Of Aire and Angels I am writing late this week as we took a couple of days off to visit some of the castles and sights just down the road from us. One of the problems in living in the center of Languedoc is that the history and scenery become part of our daily life and often we "can't see for looking". When we rented our apartments we relied on our guests to tell us about the things they discovered and places they saw, rarely making time to go ourselves and believing we would go next week/month/year and of course we never did. Many visitors have come to us to visit and look for the secrets at places like Rennes le Chateau, many evenings talking and many bottles emptied. The interest created by "The Da Vinci Code" and other recent books is creating more interest. Our home is in the center of many of the most important Phocean, Jewish, Roman, Visigoth, Cathar and Templar sites. Languedoc is also strongly influenced by Islam from the learning and knowledge that was protected here when the rest of Europe was in the "dark ages". Troubadours, "courts of love", enlightenment and the rennaisance happened here centuries before Italy, but just like Ferrari and Formula 1 today, Italy had to change the rules to keep on top. This week Carole and I, with our son Jack and Daughter Miranda, managed to get away to see a little for ourselves, Clio stayed at home to feed the animals. Our first stop was at Rennes le Chateau. Once a powerful and important place, today it is still magnificent with a legacy of a mystery. The story of abbe Berenger Sauniere is well documented and is the origin for the recent best seller "The Da Vinci Code. http://www.rennes-le-chateau.co.uk/ rennes-le-chateau.co.uk/ Teenage girls are not usually keen on tombs and churches, but the day ended perfectly at a gem of a hotel with excellent cooking. The next day we decided to trace the Cathar story backwards, from Montsegur where it officially ended in 1244, to Albi where it began in France over a thousand years ago - Omega and Alpha. A late April morning is one of the best times to climb to Chateau Montsegur - there was some snow on the ground in the car park, but we were soon hot from the half hour climb in Mediterranean sunshine up a mixture of steep steps and rocky paths to get to the castle. The climb is worth it - the view is truly breathtaking. The combination of fear and faith needed to build a fortress like that is inspirational. Rather than try to get our kids up more mountain paths we decided some shopping therapy was needed so we went straight to Albi. Apart from being the city where the "Albigensian Herisy" (Cathars) started, a mixture of the best of modern shops with timbered medaeval streets, it has a the largest brick build cathedral in the world and a museam devoted to Toulouse Lautrec. You either love or hate the cathedral (I loved it) it was started 20 years after the final siege at Montsegur and little is left as a reminder of the Cathars. The huge mural of the "last judgement" with an awesome collection of demons and imps worthy of Hieronymus Bosch, suggests suitable treatments for a complaining 16 year old, some modest retail therapy helped her spiritual perceptions recover. Our road home followed the trail of one of the main routes to Compostela in the middle ages. Living in the center of Languedoc does makes us see things with different eyes to visitors - after eleven years here we now take for granted many things - the sun, wine, food and the results of many beliefs and civilisations who lived here - every stone has been touched and moved here for thousands of years by farmers and builders. Our last home had been lived in for over a thousand years and the foundations were much older, the Greeks lived here before the Romans - our "new" house is only a couple of hundred years old, but signs of the lives of much earlier people are everywhere. Because I live here, I have a big advantage when visiting these sites which have spawned legends and books. On this trip I was not looking for a "great wonder", I live in it every day. Therefore perhaps I am able to see a litle clearer and - in some cases literally - read between the lines. Secret societies are formed to keep secrets, the secret only has a value if it is kept and dire punishments are promised by some brotherhoods and societies if a member ever reveals a secret. But if a secret has a value then it must also be protected from ever being lost, so usually a secret is written in coded form so that if discovered by the wrong person it is safe, but if discovered by one who is initiated, then the message can be passed on. The story of Rennes le Chateau is based on some coded writings abbe Sauniere deciphered. From my brief visit this week I noticed that the decoding has only been revealed to the first level, at least to the general public, but I am sure other initiates he showed this to in Paris knew better. The code system applied is the simplest of the Knights Tour Ciphers and although it gives a lucid message, this would only be used to mislead and to hide the full and much longer text the coded parchments are meant to convey. The means to fully decipher the documents are not only clearly evident in the little church abbe Sauniere refurbished, but also in every temple in the world. The cipher is amazingly complex and is thousands of years old, yet it is one of the simplest to use and known to most people, no matter what language they use. My research so far reveals that the Knights Templar have used this cipher and code before, but it has been missed by all the books and papers this century. I am not going to spend my life studying codes and ciphers, but I do plan to go back to some more sites, not only for the secrets they hide, but for the sunshine, local food and wine and to watch eagles soar just above our heads as we did at Montsegur this week. If anyone is interested in sharing a tour of this wonderful region and amusing themselves with some new ideas of the coded messages and ancient mysteries, as well as sampling good food and wine, I could create a five day tour - let me know. ======= 2. All UK property Prices OurProperty goes Live After months of hard work the OurProperty site is finally launched. The site is a free information resource that provides you with the sale price of any property bought and sold in England and Wales since April 2000. They aim to make government information easily accessible for the general public, and hope that you find the site easy to use and the information easy to digest. So why not go ahead and find out how much the neighbours really paid! http://www.ourproperty.co.uk/ OurProperty ======= 3. We Want To Invest In French Property Tony We are interested in South West France: Midi - Pyrenees, Aquitaine or Languedoc-Roussillon. We want a village house, apartment or cottage. 2 -3 bedrooms with a small garden or courtyard. We are prepared to do a little DYI and updating but not major structural renovations. We want to be able to rent the property out. It is not our intention to live in France but rather make it a little investment. Our budget limit is $200,000 (roughly Euro 150k). We need advise on which areas in this region would be a reasonable investment. Since we don't intend to live in France would it be better to get a studio flat in Toulouse (for example) so that we would not have any problems renting it out. We are a little sceptical of Lease back ventures - should we sell would the value increase etc. Any advise would be appreciated. === Hello Tammy To be absolutely honest to buy a property as you describe as an investment is, in my opinion, not viable unless you gain a personal benefit yourself from using it a few weeks every year, then it is a "lifestyle" purchase and not an investment. For 150,000 euro you can only afford a property costing 130,000 euro due to fixed fees and taxes. This would only buy a very basic village house with a small terrace or a yard and no parking. In addition to decorate and furnish will cost at least 20,000 euro to equip to a good enough standard for letting. For the vacation market there is an over supply of village houses, the most you could expect to rent a year would be an optimistic 10 weeks at an average of 400 euro a week. Take off the taxes, rental and advertising charges, cleaning, key holding, repairs and maintenance and you have a zero to 2,000 euro a year income income. Speculating on a continual rise in property values is unwise. Prices have increased an average of 140% over the last three years in this region. A small apartment in a university town to let to students is possibly a better option, but managing a single unit from a distance would be difficult and expensive. Hope this helps best wishes Tony === Hi Tony, Thank you for your email. This helps a lot. We didn't want to have a mortgage so we opted for what we could afford. Since we work in USD the exchange rate is not advantageous for us now. You are right, we chose what we thought would be good "lifestyle" options instead of what would be economically viable. We just wanted to put our money in something worthwhile and out of Africa as our investment / retirement option. But with the distance it will be difficult to manage... especially when we don't know any French!! Thanks again, Tammy ======= 4. Calculating Capital Gains Tax Hi Tony, Enjoy the newsletters - very informative. We bought a house in France 18 months ago. Unfortunately my company is likely to relocate me to the US and we're thinking that maintenance of the house and garden will be too much from such a distance - even a relatively new house. Selling so quickly was not part of our plan so I've not considered what it will cost. If we have any kind of capital gain, can you tell me how much tax we would have to pay? Also, can we deduct our buying costs that we paid 18 months ago (Frais de Notaire) and the up coming selling costs (agent fees) from the amount? Regards, John === Hi John There is a CGT calculator on our sites at http://1stpropertysales.com/france/capital-gains/under5.html CGT Calculator There are very strict rules - you can deduct your buying and selling costs and taxes. Best wishes Tony ======= 5. Problems With Our Leaseback Hi Tony, We bought a leaseback last year, and have had many problems with the agents and their ability to explain procedures...I ask a question, no one has an answer, it takes 2 months to get the answer, etc. Of course, this was not the case until the purchase was completed! Now, we are trying to understand the procedure for the return of VAT....which when selling the property was just a routine process, now it is quite complicated...and a year later we are presented with tax forms. Is the VAT only returned through the tax process? Our agent made it clear (we thought) that the developer returned the VAT...now I have no idea. And if the VAT does come back through the government, is the entire amount returned the first year or is it a piecemeal process, spanning the years? Also, when the tax form asks for the income for the year, is it global income or French? I am so confused! Thanks as ever for all your help! Lynn === Hi Lynn Developers lie through their teeth to get sales and then ignore you when they have your money - this is usual. The VAT repayment takes time - it is complicated so usually the developer arranges for this - either to take it off the initial purchase price, or collects it and then repays it to you. The repayment is in one amount I understand. If you are tying to do this yourself it can be a very long and complex process - I will ask others if they have done this successfully. A French tax return requires your world-wide "global" income to be declared - in most cases there are tax-treaties with other countries - it all depends on your tax residency. Bonne Chance Tony ======= 6.Resale Of Leasebacks Hi Tony, Hope you've got time to answer a quick question for me. I have a Leaseback property in Cannes (Remember I contacted you recently as I was struggling to get someone in for the weeks I had reserved for the film festival! - still no luck on that either!) I know your not a great fan of Leasebacks but a couple of your comments have got me worried! - Your comment on the re-sale value being that of a secure rented property not the freehold value - do you mean if you wish to sell during the 9 year lease it is tied to or afterwards when technically you are free from the tie? I looked into Leasebacks extensively prior to purchasing but did not come across this. My main reason for purchase was as an investment to hopefully gain value over the years for when I come to sell it (and in the mean time visit France as often as possible during the weeks I can use it). Cheers Tony, All the best , Max === Hi Max There is no guarantee that after the initial lease period you will have free access to the property - it is a commercial lease and the management company have many protections and rights for renewal. Also for the RT status the majority of owners must "opt out" of the deal and this will incur repayments of tax until 21 years are expired. If you opt-out then the management company may have rights for compensation for losses incurred as a result. I have heard of some leaseback deals where the owner has been able to enjoy vacant possession - but I am still waiting to hear of anyone who has sold at a profit. Your investment must only be considered as a tenanted property, not the vacant-possession freehold value. It is simply an investment giving a 5% (average) return - I have no evidence to support there being any capital gains on the investment. Best wishes Tony ======= 7. Do I Have To Wear a Speedo Tony I have a very big question! it is about this class trip we are planning! we want to go to France and I have heard that boys have to wear speedos in the public swimming pools! no boxer shorts, is this right is this some sort of rule? please help me! udo === Hi udo Yes - absolutely true - boxer shorts are banned from all public swimming pools - the good news is that girls have to be naked (sorry only kidding) Shorts or long trunks are not allowed in any public pool - some pools insist you wear a cap as well - yuk Have fun === Thank you very much, I hope you don't take it personally but I had to find out for ours boys that's why I used a boys name!they were eager to find out if its true but we didn't find any information and I really appreciate that you answered! anna ======= 8. Sky TV In France Dear Tony, Have searched in vain through the 1,000 articles in your archives for info on Sat TV, maybe I have missed the article? We have a village house in Burgundy and according to a TV specialist there most Brits with holiday homes who want to view predominantly British TV channels buy the receiver box in the UK, but knowing which or what box to buy is the problem. The French specialist also recommends a numeric system rather than analogue, an LNB (low noise block) attached to the dish, a PAL or D2MAC or Secam receiver, a subscription card reader (videocrypt, eurocrypt or nagravision) and that there is a North Beam and a South Beam but the two Beams cannot be picked up by all systems. There is probably even more technical stuff involved in addition to those listed above but I'm not a technician. All we want is a system that is good, easy to operate (and install) in order to view any of the 5 British channels minimum whilst sipping our Nuit St George in Alesia. Excellent news about your Mum. Thank you, Ian === Hello Ian You can do it yourself or use one of the specialists who help with Sky in France here are some links http://www.solsat.com/ Solstat http://www.french-help.com/page0.htm French-Help http://skyinfrance.co.uk/links.htm skyinfrance best wishes Tony ======= |
