French Apartment
Late in 2005 I had a bit of spare cash and nothing big I wanted to buy (I already had a house and sports car), so I decided to invest it. The obvious choices were:
- Shares
- Property
- Pay off some of my mortgage
- Move to a bigger house
- Let to buy mortgage (rent out my current house and buy another one)
- Buy to rent mortgage (get another house to rent)
I decided that getting another house to rent out would be the best option, so I looked around for a property in the UK. After a few months of looking around and waiting for the perfect investment, I visited a show in Milton Keynes for foreign property – run by the international estate agents MacAnthony Realty International (MRI). What really caught my attention was the promise of guaranteed rental opportunity in France. After some research, it seemed like a good, safe investment.
So 2 weeks later, I flew out to France and over 2 days, saw 6 apartments in Nice and 5 in Cannes. On the morning of the 3rd day I made the decision to purchase an apartment right in the centre of Nice! It wasn’t the biggest apartment, but it was the 2nd most expensive of the 11 that I saw and the location was excellent.
By some good fortune, I got a good discount on the apartment – due to 3 factors:
- The apartment had been sold before and fallen through
- It was the last apartment to sell in a block of apartments (all owned by one developer)
- The developer was feeling unwell so was probably gave in easily
A couple of hours later I was at the solicitors office, signing the contract. While I was there I was informed that 4 other people had put offers on the apartment – but the legal system in France means that the apartment was mine! Guzumping is not allowed in France.
Then I spent the Saturday afternoon walking around Monaco (and visiting the famous Monte-Carlo Casino!) and the Sunday walking around the old part of Nice.
I flew out and signed the deeds on 14/06/2006.
The apartment is now for rent or sale.
