Property Guides
There are a number of factors to consider when buying a new apartment or villa in and around Paris, particularly if French is not your mother tongue and you are unfamiliar with the French legal and financial system and the buying process in France as a whole. Avecoeur is uniquely placed to offer a 360 degree service for its clients from finding the right property to obtaining the finance and renting it out if you choose. View our services for property investors in France and services for property owners page to see more details on this.
The VAT rebate for new property in and around Paris
If you choose to rent your property out once you have bought it then you can benefit from being refunded the VAT included in the price and details of this can be found on our VAT rebate page. VAT is included in all new build French properties (like most countries) but the difference in France is that you are able to have it refunded to you if you rent it out for some of the time via a company like Avecoeur. There are also other benefits of buying a property off-plan in France which are worth considering.
Where to buy a new apartment or house in and around Paris
Choosing where to buy in the South of France will depend on your budget, criteria and lifestyle and investment priorities however below are some good rules of thumb if you are looking to rent your property out in Paris.
If you want to be able to achieve a good occupancy rate and tariff when renting out your apartment or house in Paris then its a good idea to focus on the areas that are traditionally touristic. In terms of areas outside the city walls that have their own attraction for tourists then Versailles with its world famous Chateaux and gardens is a particularly good option. When investing in property in Paris the attraction of its immediate vicinity (places within 15 mins walk) is hugely important as tourists who come to the city don’t want to have to take the metro every time they want to go somewhere nice. Of course, you can’t be within a 15 min walk of every attraction so you also need to be within a 10 minute walk of the metro station and ideally less and the charm and architecture of the arrondissement is extremely important, even more so than for ski or seaside rentals. If buying in Paris itself then a view of an iconic structure of building such as the Eiffel tower is great if you have the budget as it is a unique feature that makes it stand out but the increase in price to have it is not always matched by an equal increase in rental income, so if trying to maximise your yield an iconic view is actually not a necessary feature. It is useful though when re-selling. To help you decide which area in or around Paris is for you it is worth taking a look at our Paris and Ile de France guide.
Apartment or House/Hotel particulier
As most people coming into Paris do so in small groups or in couples, whether it’s for tourism or business it is usually best to buy an apartment in a central location rather than a hotel particulier. As new builds in the central Paris locations are rare you may find that an older property is easier to find. If you can find one in a charming Haussmanian building then that should be a good investment, although if buying on the 3rd floor or above you would ideally want one with a lift which is not always the case in these old buildings.
New build or existing older property
If you are able to find a new build apartment in Paris in an attractive building, then if doing short term rentals it makes perfect sense. This is because if you rent your property out for a certain amount of time with a rental management company like Avecoeur, then because of the VAT rebate available on new build French property, it really is a no-brainer. Even rarer is to find an entire older building that has been entirely gutted, restructured and renovated but if you can find one then these also include VAT which can be rebated. While a new build property in France is typically 15% to 20% more expensive than an older property, this is offset immediately by the reimbursement of the VAT. Then when you add in all the other benefits of buying off-plan property in France such as the reduced notaire fees and the build guarantee it skews all the advantages in favour of a new apartment or house, provided it is in the right location. In addition, new build properties are ready to rent out immediately and will not require renovation works for a long time while older properties inherently require some renovation and could have expensive imminent communal charges such as a new roof for example. View our page on the new build buying process in France through Avecoeur for an understanding of the steps involved.
View our new property for sale in Paris and Ile de France page to see a curated selection.
New apartments and villas for rent in Paris and Ile de France
New apartments and villas for sale in Paris and Ile de France