Adding Value to Your Holiday Home in France

How to add value to property in France so you can resell it or rent it out easily and profitably

If you’ve invested in a property in France and you want to profit from it by letting it out to the tourism market for example, or if you have a home in France that you now want to get in as profitable a position as possible to resell, there are a number of things you can do and techniques you can adopt to add value to your real estate, either in the form of rental income or the asking price chargeable.

Adding value to your holiday home in France need not cost the earth either which is good news!  You first have to decide whether you want to let the property out to paying guests or if you just want to resell and reap the financial dividends.

If you’re considering letting the property out you need to think about your target rental market.  This will be based on the location of the property and also the size of the home.  If your property is an apartment in the centre of Paris, chances are you will be letting to individuals, couples or small groups of adults rather than families.  If your home is a villa in the French countryside close to beaches, your likely target market will be families perhaps.  So, think about who will want to rent your home and then think about what sorts of facilities and amenities they would like.

If your property is close to mountains and likely to be used in the winter by skiers and in the summer by walkers, consider adding maps and guides of the area, up to date information about where to hire equipment and get passes for ski lifts, where the best paths are for walking and even think about upgrading your hot water system so there is always plenty of hot water available for baths and showers in which aching limbs can be treated!

If on the other hand your home is a summer holiday retreat, think about installing a swimming pool.  Rules and regulations about what you can and cannot construct and the location of a pool on your property differ depending on the region in which you live.  Generally speaking, if the pool is less than 20 square meters you do not need planning permission, it cannot be constructed in sight of a road or within three meters of your property’s boundaries.  You also have to think about the safety aspects of having a pool – there are certain guidelines you have to abide by as laid out by the French government, and in addition to these, consider the fact the pool has to be child safe for your tenants at all times.

Contact a local pool constructor and find out about costs and regulations and seriously think about how much a pool could add to the rental income value and even the underlying property price of your property.  Swimming pools do tend to add at least the cost in value terms to your property’s worth...and they make it easier to sell and rent too.

In terms of getting your property ready to resell, make sure the first impressions any visitor coming to view gets are highly favourable indeed.  Paint the outside of your property, make sure driveways, gardens or communal areas are cleaned up and looking spruce.  Clear away as many personal effects such as photographs of the family for example and present as smart but as blank a canvas as possible.  Try and sell the lifestyle benefits of your home as well, open curtains and blinds fully so that good views can be experienced, and even take viewers out onto terraces or balconies for a cup of coffee so that they can imagine what it would be like to live in your property.

Property values in France have been increasing significantly over the past few years and what’s more, interest in French property from tenants and buyers is not abating.  If you have a home in France therefore, it should not be too difficult for you to raise an income or a profit from it.