Real Estate Agent · St Petersburg, FL · Member since 2014 · 116 posts · 38 votes
Hey all, I'm an American investor living in the south of France (Aix-en-Provence). I'm interested in the Marseille area and was wondering if anyone on BP is investing there. I'm interested in purchasing single apartments and single family homes as rentals.
No but my wife and I really like the southern area of France. Please do let us know how it goes - I would be very interested in the journey you take if you do purchase something there. We went to Nice a couple years ago and spent two weeks bike riding and while there ended up looking at a lot of property for sale, mostly vacation rentals. More for curiosity I suppose. A lot of Brits have rentals there and it seemed like a lot of stuff on the market that was for sale were owned by...Brits. Like anything, make sure you have a good lawyer that can navigate both the French system and the American. Dealing with two tax systems gives me a head-ache just thinking about it...
The double tax system may be more of an expense or a hassle than most realize. Being a dual citizen with Italy has given me lots of opportunities to invest in Italy, especially in the Alps, of which I have engaged in none. After you crunch the numbers the margins are very challenging. When you consider the time spent, all the organization and double taxation it becomes very difficult for individual investors to do well abroad. My recommendation is to seek more passive routes of real estate investing such as investment groups, shares of RE Companies, REITs etc for the European theatre as it will relieve you of much of the leg work, hassle and headache, especially if you aren't native (working a deal can be tough as the "American" even when you speak the local dialect). Just my $.02
Commercial Real Estate Broker · Sacramento, CA · Member since 2015 · 102 posts · 50 votes
7y
No but my wife and I really like the southern area of France. Please do let us know how it goes - I would be very interested in the journey you take if you do purchase something there. We went to Nice a couple years ago and spent two weeks bike riding and while there ended up looking at a lot of property for sale, mostly vacation rentals. More for curiosity I suppose. A lot of Brits have rentals there and it seemed like a lot of stuff on the market that was for sale were owned by...Brits. Like anything, make sure you have a good lawyer that can navigate both the French system and the American. Dealing with two tax systems gives me a head-ache just thinking about it...
No but my wife and I really like the southern area of France. Please do let us know how it goes - I would be very interested in the journey you take if you do purchase something there. We went to Nice a couple years ago and spent two weeks bike riding and while there ended up looking at a lot of property for sale, mostly vacation rentals. More for curiosity I suppose. A lot of Brits have rentals there and it seemed like a lot of stuff on the market that was for sale were owned by...Brits. Like anything, make sure you have a good lawyer that can navigate both the French system and the American. Dealing with two tax systems gives me a head-ache just thinking about it...
The double tax system may be more of an expense or a hassle than most realize. Being a dual citizen with Italy has given me lots of opportunities to invest in Italy, especially in the Alps, of which I have engaged in none. After you crunch the numbers the margins are very challenging. When you consider the time spent, all the organization and double taxation it becomes very difficult for individual investors to do well abroad. My recommendation is to seek more passive routes of real estate investing such as investment groups, shares of RE Companies, REITs etc for the European theatre as it will relieve you of much of the leg work, hassle and headache, especially if you aren't native (working a deal can be tough as the "American" even when you speak the local dialect). Just my $.02
Real Estate Agent · St Petersburg, FL · Member since 2014 · 116 posts · 38 votes
7y
@David Cardoso Thanks for your response, I appreciate the input. That's pretty much what I was afraid people would say but I wanted to hear it from others.
Indianapolis · Member since 2019 · 11 posts · 12 votes
7y
@Alexi Schreier Its a pretty limiting factor to many people wanting to invest outside the US. Passive investments are the best way to make the attempt, but the ROI has to be substantial to offset the cost. One of my clients owns a home near Avignon. She uses it as a vacation home and rents it out to help offset the cost of owning it. It doesn't produce enough for it to be considered an investment but does help a lot with the cost of ownership. Maybe a multifamily unit would help you accomplish something similar?
Real Estate Agent · St Petersburg, FL · Member since 2014 · 116 posts · 38 votes
7y
@David Cardoso Thanks for the suggestion. What I'm more concerned of at a macro level is the French government being very anti real estate. The current president Macron has made it a mission to fight against capital gains and rental income from real estate via the taxation system. He's putting in place harsh tax laws for property owners because he deems that people who make money from real estate "didn't work to get that money", that's a direct quote from him. The way things are headed the laws are going to get worse over time under his presidency. Not to mention that it's not impossible for the far right or far left party to get elected in France during the next presidential election which would make real estate tax laws a catastrophe for investors.
That said, I'm not sure I'm willing to take the risk of investing in France for the moment. I would rather purchase in a more stable American market.