Friend - holiday home abroad?

Hannaho

Friend just came into 200k and wants to buy apartment in Nantes, France. My own experience of a holiday home in Ireland is that we rarely get to visit it now, and my children prefer to go exploring other parts of the world. At least our holiday home is her in Ireland, but, said it might be hard to manage a holiday home abroad - putting on heat in winter, checking it etc. In hindsight, I had to say to my friend that I wished we hadn't bought a holiday home. Just wondered if anyone here can offer her the positive side of owning property abroad - or are there a lot more pitfalls than I have mentioned to her. I wouldn't like to see her regret her decision to spend a large part of her 200k inheritance on something that might be stressful and costly - she has teenage children also who I think would be happy to holiday in France initially, but might become bored of it quite soon.

shrapnel222

Nantes is great, and actually a currently thriving and fast growing city but it's not really a holiday home kind of place?

spaceHopper

My sister and her husband have a place in Portugal, they keep it for themselves and family/friends. They use it all the time, mid term breaks, summer holidays, he goes out playing golf with the lads once or twice a year.... Grandparents go out to..... It's working out very well from the. They don't rent it, they have another place they rent and the same management company to look after both.

Nantes is a direct flight form Dublin, I actually think they would use it. The one thing I would say is be careful about buying where there is lots of building as it can be hard to sell a second hand place if there are lots of new builds.

handlemaster

I think its a waste of money. Nantes isnt a holiday city. Put on top the fence paper work .property tax. . Maintance and its an expensive purchase.

The_Conductor

Tax implications of purchasing property in France are horrendous. You need proper advice- alongside a reasonable understanding of how their taxation regime and how its treated under the reciprochal arrangements with Ireland.

Its a nightmare.

The_Conductor

I assume they already own a house here, have the mortgage cleared and have no other debt as if not the first thing they should do is clear any debt and if they don't own a house here then buy one.

After that I'd be saving/investing most of the money rather than spending it on a holiday home. You will have a lot of holidays abroad for a fraction of the cost of buying a place and won't be going to the same place every year which would get boring after a while.

The_Conductor wrote: »

Tax implications of purchasing property in France are horrendous. You need proper advice- alongside a reasonable understanding of how their taxation regime and how its treated under the reciprochal arrangements with Ireland.

Its a nightmare.

Are they that bad? I know some people who invested in student apartments in France a few years ago and I haven't heard them complain about hassle with tax.

The Ging and I

I live in France and would not advise it. If you are going to live there in the future thats ok. There are a lot of taxes which you will get no benefit from as a non resident. If you sell in the next few years theres more 'exit" taxes on profit.

Spanish Eyes

You'd get a hell of a lot of holidays all over the world for the rest of your natural for €200k!

We had a tiny apartment in Nice for a few years. Sold up a few years ago, the costs of co-properties (management fees) and Fonciere and Habitation tax can be astronomical. And if renting it out, the Department of Impots (Revenue) do not leave you alone, and the tax forms for rental income are indecipherable. Irish tax is payable too, with Double Tax credits. Another headache. Then you pay someone to do it for you, and on it goes!

Happy out now. Go where we want without feeling we HAVE to go to Nice to get value for money or whatever nonsense motivated us at the time. It was an adventure alright, but I would not repeat it anywhere in the world ever again. All we got out of it was a few holidays really and a load of hassle, although the holliers were very enjoyable.

Renting a place is a joy. Someone else takes all the responsiblity. As a matter of fact we took a lease on a little place outside Carcassonne for a year. Minimal rent - something like 275 a month + rates. Went up and down all year long. Will do that again sometime!

Capital appreciation is negligible in France too, price is not really based on location but on sq. m. Just to mention.