The concept of buying a property to let it out is a simple one to grasp really isn’t it - in theory anyway. Basically you find a nice property at the right price in the right location and you buy it…you then find a nice tenant who comes with excellent references and they rent your property from you and effectively earn you an income. In fact, it couldn’t be a simpler concept could it?
However, the realities of the process aren’t quite so simple when you start considering things such as ‘what constitutes the right location’, ‘how do I find the perfect tenant’, ‘what about taxes’, ‘can I afford to do this?’ Well, if you’re considering your options but you’re worried about making a success of it, in this article we can show you how to successfully buy to let property in Paris in France because Paris has exceptionally strong buy to let potential…
Paris is an incredible city – there are no two ways about it! It is jam packed with culture, history, charm and beauty, it is synonymous with art and with romance and what’s more, it has one of the strongest rental markets in Europe where demand is intense, property prices are still affordable in many areas of the city and where it’s far easier to find a good tenant than a bad one.
Paris is divided up into twenty very different arrondissements with each offering an array of property types for different budgets and which appeal to a different type of tenant. This is good news for all you would-be-buy-to-letters because it means with a bit of careful research and quite a lot of leg work you can find the right property to suit your budget, your required rental income and your short and long term buy to let intentions.
The first point to bear in mind before you even begin looking at a map of Paris to work out where you want to buy your property, is how you will want to rent your property out. By this I mean – are you buying purely for investment purposes and ideally you will have your apartment permanently occupied by a paying tenant – or, do you intend to sometimes use your property as well? If you’re going for the former option then your best bet will be the professional or student market and getting tenants to sign a three year contract for an unfurnished property.
On the other hand, if you want to occasionally use your home yourself you should think about the type of tenant you want and buy in a location according to their requirements, you should furnish it appropriately and then either let it out for six months at a time as a corporate let for example, or rent it on a very short term basis in the form of weeks or even weekends to tourists.
Whichever method of approach you’re thinking of using, your next step will be targeting the arrondissement of most appeal to your target tenant audience – oh and your bank account too!
To give you an idea of what’s where in Paris – the Avenue des Champs-Élysées, the Arc De Triomphe, the Louvre, Notre Dame and the Latin Quarter are all on the Right Bank and the Eiffel Tower is on the Left Bank. The 10th, 11th and 19th arrondissement represent fairly good value for money, the 16th and 12th are quite quiet and residential, the 5th and 18th are good for tourism lets and the 8th is about the best for letting to professionals or for corporate letting opportunities.
The good news is that it is quite easy to make your money work harder in Paris because French mortgages are easily available. Speak to a lender like Barclays if in doubt about what you can borrow specifically for a buy to let purchase in France because they are used to the concept in the UK and they have an incredibly strong local presence in France thereby offering you the best of both worlds you see.
And finally – what can you expect to earn from successfully letting out your buy to let property in Paris? Well, at the moment the average yields are between 5 and 8% with about 6% easily achievable with a careful purchase – and the even better news is that property prices in Paris for residential real estate are creeping ever upwards, and so whatever you buy now, you will probably achieve a healthy gain in underlying value over the longer term as well as an attractive yield in the short to medium term in the form of rental income.
