News from Southern France - Number 82, - 7 November 2003

A regular newsletter from the South of France about visiting, life, living and working here. There are hundreds of articles in the archives at...

http://francevoila.com/archives/
FranceVoila Archives

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This week

Ryanair tickets in our winter competitions. - The hottest property investments are in France. - Unlock the capital in your property. - $1000 off a Cruise in France. -

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1. Our Competition Jointly with Ryanair
2. Prompt, Precise and Expert Translations
3. Leaseback your Freehold in France
4. France is Still the Best Place for Property
5. Cruising in France save $1000
6. A Rental in France for only 380 euro a month
7. Yoga, Balloon Rides or Relax on the Beach
8. Releasing your capital "contract viagere"
9. Bank Robbery (commission)
10.Can I leaseback my own home ?
11. More Pool information


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Advertising With Us

We get many people asking to advertise in this newsletter and on our sites, we will accept advertising from companies or people offering a service to property owners or visitors to France. This newsletter today is being sent to 10,386 subscribers - to the best of our ability and knowledge these are genuine, individual subscribers who have applied to us for the newsletter. We operate a double confimation system and continually clean out all addresses which appear invalid, bounce or are listed as "undesirable".

Only a few adverts will be run in each newsletter, a condition is that any person or company offering a service in France must be registered and give us their Numero Siret (or Siren), (if you don't know what this is - you have not got one).

To suggest an advert and to see the rates or to send us payment, go to our inquiry page at...
http://rentalsfrance.com/contact/
Contact Us

Or use this link
http://francevoila.com/tipping
How to Pay Us

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1. Flights with Ryanair from our travel sites.

Starting this December we will be running a series of competitions jointly with Ryanair. Full details will be published in this newsletter and on our websites. Entry is easy, you only have to be a subscriber to this newsletter and to register with us, you can go directly to the registration page..

http://frenchpropertydigest.com/ryanair/
Ryanair Competition
Everyone registering gets a bonus of a 10 euro voucher from us, keep this as you will need the voucher number in the competition. The rules are simple to follow and the answers will be found on our websites. So as the winter evenings draw in, you can explore our virtual world and dream of next summer in France.

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2. Prompt, Precise and Expert Translations

LinguaFranca: a niche French-to-English translation house.

Specialists in translating law documents.
We use only qualified lawyers as translators.

tel +44 (0) 7734 110 252 or +44 (0) 1727 866 503
fax +44 (0) 7793 649 462

mailto:sophie@lingua-franca.co.uk
Sophie@Lingua-Franca.co.uk

http://www.lingua-franca.co.uk
Lingua-Franca

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3. Leaseback your Freehold in France

The hottest property topic this year is leasbacks. This has been a popular government backed intitiative for 20 years in France which has suddenly been discovered by investors from other countries. We explain a lot about this, and other less well known plans, on our sites at

http://frenchpropertydigest.com/
FrenchPropertyDigest

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4. France is Still the Best Place for Property.

There is a lot being written recently about investing in Croatia, Bulgaria and other "new" vacation spots. It is true that in many countries which have until recently been just vague places on the map of an extended Europe, you will find properties for sale at prices not seen in France for 20 years. There is also a feeling of pioneering and reestablishing tourism after years of conflict along the Adriatic. My simple question is "where are all the tourists coming from?". The baby boom has booomed, the average age of visitors and travellers increases every year. There is a finite number of tourists. Certainly some will explore new places, but it is basically not an expanding industry. So the new attractions will gain customers by displacement marketing. In other words, they will try and get them from France, Italy and Spain.

France is the most visited country in the world with over 70 million visitors a year. It would have to drop 25 million visitors before it lost this top position. There is no reason for such a significant displacement to happen. It is like saying that Oxford Street or Park Avenue will fall in value or demand because there ia cheap property in the East End or on the West Side.

There are opportunities in these revitalised countries, there is also a higher level of risk. With some capital and even more media attention moving to these new areas the heat will be taken off France a little, this means that France is able to stabelise and will be an even better deal.

The bottom line, as in all property, is position. When they discover Paris in the Bulgarian countryside I will be first there.

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5. Cruising in France save $1000

If you book in the next 4 weeks for a cruise next year, you can get $1,000 off the cost of a cruise. contact us for details

http://rentalsfrance.com/contact/cruises/
Cruises

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6. A Rental in France for only 380 euro a month

There's bargain lodging at St Martial, from 15 Dec until 31 May at only 380 euro per month, plus heating. Double bedroom, single room, living room, kitchen, fully equipped and furnished small private garden. Peaceful rural setting, 3 kms from Tourbes near Pezenas and Beziers in Herault (34), Languedoc

http://rentalsfrance.com/stmartial/
St Martial

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7. Yoga, Balloon Rides or Relax on the Beach

Anne Soulet is running her Yoga and relaxation workship agoin this year. Full details are on our site at...

http://rentalsfrance.com/languedoc/granddarene/
Grand Darene

Anne Says...
"A cook is wanted for the week who is interested in cooking for the 8 people who will be in the house. I would like the cook to have a car to share with the help and myself. If people are interested in participating in the retreat, they need to know English. I am open to any nationality and it will be many different activities so that we have small groups and a car pool."

Write to me if you are interested in this cooking position in a magical place..

mailto:tony@pezenas.com
tony@pezenas.com

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8. Releasing your capital "Contract Viagere"

Tony

We are coming up to pensionable age and own our own property in the Dordogne where we live.Are there any decent schemems available to us to release some of the equity in our property to enable us to continue our present lifestyle whilst having that little extra to enjoy.

Ted

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Hello Ted,
You can arrange a contract viagere with a "purchaser" through a Notaire. This is effect means you sell your home to someone who will pay you a fixed sum for the rest of your lives. You live in it exactly as you do at present with no restrictions and full benefit. They will then inherit your property. The sum depends on your ages of course and is an actuarial gamble for the "buyer" - you also want to make sure they don't have access to your drinking water or walk with you near high cliffs etc!!

This site has some information

http://www.franao.com/rente_viagere_34.html
Rente Viagere

Tony

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9. Bank Robbery (commission)

Tony,

I have had an apartment in Vence for the past ten years, which we let between using it. Since July this year my bank, Banque Populaire de la Cote d'Azur, has been taking commission on all cheques these have been one in euros from Holland, one in euros from Dublin and one specially transferred in euros from the UK.

It would be much appreciated if you or anyone in your net could advise on how this new charging system may be avoided.

Thank you for a very interesting Newsletter.

Shirley

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Shirley,

Only a euro cheque from a French bank is recognised as a valid euro cheque in France and will have minimal transfer costs. The only "open" currency are coins and notes in the eurozone. A euro cheque from and Irish, Italian or German bank is treated just the same as they were in punts, Lira or Marks, it is only the rate of exchange which is fixed. You pay a lot for the transfer and it takes ages to clear. Out of the euro and you get a double whammy.

We use PayPal and other simple Internet services - everything has a cost, it just has to be built in - the only "fair" ways of exchanging are against the law (you can get a fantastic deal on rupees from your corner shop - and it is cleared in one day and delivered by hand) - the governments need their pound (no pun intended) of flesh to support their civil service pensions.

Bonne Chance

Tony

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10. Can I leaseback my own home ?

Hello Rentals France

Re Leasebacks. I have a property in France - have had it for over 3 years. It is an old villa renovated with pool. Can I get involved with Leaseback on my property or is it only with new developments? Please advise thank you.

Alan

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Hello Alan,

The government supported leaseback "Residence Tourisme" and "Quasi Hotelier" plans are for specified developments in designated areas from approved builders and rentals companies. It is possible to apply this with substantial renovation for older properties, but the tax breaks are halved.

It does not apply to individual properties or private ownership.

What are you looking for? With some properties we can arrange guaranteed rentals.

Best wishes

Tony

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11. More Pool information

Tony,
Can we fit an alarm rather than a fence as our pool is very near the house (4 metres) and a fence would be almost impossible to fit because of the arbour providing shade?
Richard

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Hello Richard,
The quick answer is no - the pool has to be fenced and gated to the AFNOR specification. The fence must be more than 1 meter and less than 3 meters from the pool edge.

The full details, laws and specifications as they are released are on our site at

http://francevoila.com/features/pools.html
FranceVoila Pools

There are draft standards, for approved alarm systems, but these are not to replace fencing but to augment them.

Organisations such as ABTA are telling all travel operators they must only deal with owners with correctly fenced pools and all companies will invalidate policies if the law is not complied with.

I know this is a serious problem for many owners and I am getting a lot of negative mail ab