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)

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)

• French property prices rise by an average 3.9% during Q2 2009
• Q2 resurgence brings year to date market fall to a reduced -2.5%
• Numbers of French mortgage enquiries up 42%
• Britons remain the largest number of foreign buyers in France

The French residential property market is showing encouraging signs of stabilization after the market shock caused by the global financial and economic crisis. On average, prices rose by 3.9% during the second quarter, resulting in a total annual return to July 2009 of -2.5%.  Read more... (1012 words, estimated 4:03 mins reading time)

According to the UK’s Office for National Statistics, the number of people visiting the UK fell in 2008 for the first time in seven years – down 2.7 percent to 31.9 million visits. The last time that the UK saw a decline in the number of visits was 2001. The final quarter of the year saw the most marked change with visits down 13 percent.

The most notable decline in visitor numbers came from the US where visits fell by 17 percent to 3 million.  Read more... (292 words, estimated 1:10 mins reading time)