Foreign property owners with holiday lets in Paris are being warned to ensure that they are fully complaint with local laws as flouting the rules could lead to a fine of up to 25,000 Euro a day and a criminal record.

The Office of the Mayor of Paris has stringent rules that now demands that property investors who let out their Parisian properties pay for affordable housing equal in size and similar in location and style to that which they are renting out. These rules have led many buy-to-letters to keep their buy-to-let propeties unofficial – any holiday property which is let out should be given government permission ahead of the start of the property’s lettings.  Read more... (460 words, 1 image, estimated 1:50 mins reading time)

• French property prices rise by 0.1% during September
• Prices now 2.8% higher than six months ago
• Number of French mortgage enquiries through Athena up 21% Q3 on Q2
• French mortgage completions at Athena Mortgages up 14% Q3 on Q2

Similar to the UK, the French residential property market is continuing to show signs of stabilisation. While prices* fell by 1% during Q3 as a whole, they rose by 0.1% during September, resulting in a total positive return for the period April to September 2009 of 2.8%. Returns for the 12 months to September 2009 have now pulled back to a respectable -7.8%.  Read more... (665 words, estimated 2:40 mins reading time)

Athena Mortgages has launched a ‘next generation’ hybrid French mortgage product in conjunction with a major French bank. The new product, exclusive to Athena Mortgages, and with a typical rate of 3%, enables borrowers to split their mortgage amount into an interest-only portion and a repayment portion.

This is an evolution of the traditional hybrid mortgage structure in France, which sets out an interest-only period for a number of years followed by a defined repayment period until the end of the loan. The minimum loan amount for the product is €300,000 and within that the minimum level for the interest-only portion is €100,000.  Read more... (468 words, estimated 1:52 mins reading time)

Buzz Returns to French Property Market, as Sales and Enquiries Rise

• Mortgage applications up 9% during August
• Property sales 15% higher during August
• West of France proves the most popular with British Buyers

Interest in the French property market continued to grow during August, in line with positive macro-economic news.
In mid-August, it emerged that France was the first of the EU nations to come out of recession, showing growth of 0.3% between April and June.  Read more... (629 words, estimated 2:31 mins reading time)

With France reported to be coming out of recession, many investors believe that France is a good place to buy property, and what better way to buy property than at a French property auction?

Although there aren’t huge numbers of French properties that are going under the hammer, amongst those that are there are some bargains to be had so if you aer considering buying a property in France, auctions may be well worth looking at.

Property auctions in France are a way to save on agents’ fees as well as an opportunity to look at unusual properties.  Read more... (259 words, estimated 1:02 mins reading time)

The French property market and German property markets are tipped to be a good place to invest over the next few months as new figures revealed that the country came out of recession in the second quarter.

After 12 months of decline, France’s economy grew by 0.3 percent between April and June against experts’ belief that the economy will continue to slide.

Germany has matched France’s economy with a 0.3 percent GDP rise over the same period.  Read more... (230 words, estimated 55 secs reading time)

Results from the UNWTO (World Tourism Organisation) showed that France continues to maintain its postion as the top holiday destination in the World.

World tourism Barometer, a regular publication of the Market Intelligence and Promotion Department of UNWTO, released data last month about the top holiday destinations globally – “France continues to lead the ranking for tourist arrivals ahead of the US and Spain”. In 2008 there were only slight changes in the ranking of top tourism destinations by both international tourist arrivals and receipts. France continues to lead the ranking of arrivals but ranks third in tourism receipts followed by the US and Spain.  Read more... (692 words, estimated 2:46 mins reading time)