Buying an apartment in France
Posted by Admin 24.07.2011 | 1 Comment
What is your idea of the perfect holiday home in France? Perhaps a beachside apartment with views over the sea, a luxury villa with pool, or an old stone farmhouse surrounded by orchards and vineyards? All these ideas flitted through my mind when we first decided to take the plunge and buy in France – so why am I now spending so much time in an apartment in a residential building in the centre of Perpignan? Because it is the perfect solution!
To me, the definition of a ‘holiday home’ is somewhere easy to get to (for short breaks as well as long holidays), ready to use (just plug in the internet and switch on a few lights) and easy to leave (I can just shut the door without having to worry about security, turning off the stopcock or organising a gardener).
Now that I am working as a property finder, it is rather embarrassing to admit that I found my apartment by accident. Our estate agent was so exasperated by my reaction to other ‘holiday’ properties she had shown me that, as a long shot, she brought me to look at a recently renovated two-bed apartment in a residential building in town and it was love at first sight! Light, bright and airy, a blank canvas, and at a bearable price. The more time we spend here, the more I realise how many positive points it has going for it and I would like to share a few of them in a bid to help others looking for a holiday home.
PARKING SOUS-SOL
City parking can be expensive and hard to find. Our building has underground parking in the basement, with our own allocated space. Admittedly, there is an extremely steep ramp so I will have to delay buying the Ferrari (I wish!), and negotiating the pillars and angles to actually get the car into the space can take far longer than it should do (just my husband’s opinion).
CAVE
Storage space can be a problem in ‘small’ apartments. Many buildings have individual storage areas for each apartment (small rooms with locks, usually in the basement) which you can fill with ski-equipment, suitcases, beach paraphernalia etc.
VUE TRAVERSANT
An apartment on the corner of a building or with windows facing front and back offers much more light, giving a more spacious feel.
BALCONS
Apartment-living can be quite claustrophobic if you have no outside space. A balcony, however small (although room for a table and two chairs is preferable), can make all the difference. We spend hours just sitting outside watching the world go by and chatting to neighbours on the balconies either side of us. Two balconies is even better – one of ours is unbearably hot in the summer but the perfect place to enjoy lunch in December sunshine, the other one is where we enjoy a drink watching the sunset. And on a more practical note, where else would you dry the beach towels?
SYNDIC
Residences are generally run by a syndic (co-operative) headed by a professional firm and with other residents voted onto the ‘board’. Every resident pays an annual charge based on the square meterage of their property and their proportion of the communal areas, and it is up to the syndic to run the building efficiently. We pay approximately €1,000 per annum for our 46/10,000 share and our fees include water, building insurance and also the central heating.
Ask to see a copy of the accounts and the minutes of the last AGM so you can get a feel for what your contributions might be. If you can attend an AGM, I would highly recommend it as a way of improving your French – you never know when you might need the word for pigeon deterrents (piques antipigeons)! Smaller buildings of maisonette-style apartments are usually maintained by the occupants collaborating together and agreeing to share costs for painting, guttering etc. So if you are considering buying one of these properties, it is vital to make sure that your new neighbours are likeminded people.
CONCIERGE
As important as a good syndic – make sure you get to know your concierge! Apart from maintaining the building, our M. Garcia is also a very amenable handyman and has often helped me out with odd jobs around the apartment. Unfortunately, he is very short so the full-length mirror that was installed only comes up to my husband’s chest but at least it is on the wall, which is more than I could have managed!
ASCENCEUR
When viewing apartments and weighed down only with leaflets from estate agents, you may talk yourself into believing that the stairs will be no problem. Now picture yourself arriving with a large suitcase or staggering upstairs with heavy bags of shopping. For anything higher than the secnd floor, you need a lift!
VUE DEGAGE/ SANS VIS-A-VIS
These terms (unobstructed view/nothing opposite) are very much open to estate agents’ interpretation but generally mean that you do not have an enormous building directly in front of your windows. Apart from the fact that your apartment will be lighter and brighter with an open airy view, you will not have to worry about privacy issues and live your life behind net curtains. On a personal note, our rear balcony looks out over some rather ugly garages but these are only at ground level and, as we are on the fifth floor, we can see straight over them all the way to the Pyrénées, so cannot really complain!
VIDE-ORDURES
I didn’t even know I had one of these until I investigated a silver flap on my balcony wall a few weeks after moving in and discovered that it was a rubbish chute. The apartment is spotless as I am constantly on the lookout for bits of rubbish to post down and hear the satisfactory clatter as items ricochet down to the bin in the basement! If you find an apartment with one of these, put down a deposit immediately!
NEIGHBOURHOOD
When buying any property it is always advisable to check out the neighbourhood at different times of day, just in case the quaint little café on the corner turns into a late-night karaoke bar, or the quiet side-street becomes a weekend race track for adolescents on scooters, for example.
Ideally it would be good to be able to check places out at different times of the year too – we knew our apartment was opposite the lycée but, having bought it during a school holiday, now find it quite interesting having to pick our way over students who use our front steps as a lunchtime picnic spot!
NEIGHBOURS
Love them or hate them, you are surrounded by them. Luckily, I love mine (even the lady upstairs who wears stilettos on her tiled floor and occasionally bursts into operatic arias)!
A residence is like a large village and everybody knows everything about everybody. At first they seemed a bit wary of me as ‘Madame Ill, l’anglaise’ was the only English person in the block but now I am just ‘Caroleeeeen’ and they are always calling in with food samples, bottles of wine and even suggestions of local properties which are coming up for sale! You will never be short of friends.
These are just a few of the things that I wish I had known about apartment living and I am just lucky that I found everything that I needed. At the start of my search for a place in France, all I knew was that the Roussillon area was where I wanted to be but I had not given enough consideration as to the type of property.
It is all too easy to fall in love with a ramshackle house in a remote village and convince yourself that you won’t mind supervising renovation work and driving miles to the nearest shop but in the end you have to be practical and consider your current lifestyle.
Living in the centre of Perpignan is the ideal solution for us. We are just a short stroll away from lively bars, eclectic shops, theatres and restaurants, the beautiful Mediterranean beaches are just a 15-minute drive away and we can hop over to Spain for lunch or drive up to the Pyrennean skislopes for a day out. Another bonus to owning an apartment is that, should we ever decide to move to the luxury villa with pool (lottery win permitting), the resale market is always very strong and there is also a good opportunity for long-term rentals. For the moment, I can see no reason to move and am loving my ‘perfect place in France’
Sensible and comprehensive advice, Caroline. Thanks for all your tips and guidance - I have made notes! Good luck with your property business, too.
Jane Skinner
Comment posted 15.01.11 @ 11:40