How to Buy a House in the South of France
Marilyn July 27th, 2007
Stuart and Lidia Darlow live in the beautiful city of Nimes in the south of France. They visit Brisbane every year, bringing details of houses for sale in the Languedoc Roussillon region — houses by the sea, 17th century village houses, farmhouses, maison de maitre (master’s house). They have some very happy buyers in Brisbane and next visit will also go to Sydney and Melbourne.
It is very easy to buy property in France and they can arrange 100% finance at 5% fixed interest for 25 years. You can expect 8-10% capital gains per year and 3/4 of the mortage could come from rentals. You will however have to find 8% of the purchase price for legals etc.
To give you an idea of prices, Stuart says that a habitable house will cost $A400-500,000, a village house with some character will be $700,000 to $1million. For instance in the lovely 14th century town of Uzes (where filmstars Depardieu and Catherine Deneuve have holiday homes) an 18th century stone village house with 6 bedrooms costs $1.2million — or an 1840s maison de maitre by the sea, renovated with 3 bedrooms, courtyard and pool will cost you $600,000.
Francis and I will be visiting Stuart and Lidia in September and we will report back on what we find.
e: stuart.pas.ledignan@wanadoo.fr
Any fixer-uppers available on the coast? We are a family … all adults… looking for a beach home that would be livable but needs fixing up.
We perfer the south of France. Price 100,000 Euros or ???
Other beachfront property would also be acceptable.
Would need internet access area.
Thank you.
Carole Henning
espesp@prodigy.net
Hi Carol,
Thank you for you enquiry, the type of property that you are looking for will be very difficult to find on the coast. Perhaps inland say 10/ 15 kms there may be a possibility but I would suggest that you may well have to up your budget also. Our region has become very popular in the last few years and we have seen prices move dramatically.May I suggest that you look at our website and if ther is anything that grabs your attention please do not hesitate to contact me
Look forward to hearing from you and perhaps meeting you in France
Stuart Darlow
Pierres au Soleil