Im thinking about buying in the Mallorca or the South of France. £250 to 500k possibly in a few months. Maybe rent it out for 2 - 3 hot months. Im looking at long term investment, with the euro at present, and french and spanish prices sliding, are these 2 areas immune, and should I wait a year. Im not really in a rush. Does the CGT always apply in both countries even if you sell up in 20 years time

kcsunshine

I presume you mean Cote D'Azur

Not immune.

done his research then eh?

Thats why i tend to avoid forums becos of sarcastic replies like that. Like most forums you have to have posted a least 8000 posts before you get any respect. The origianal post was asking a straight forward question.

This one is obviously full of Golf drivers with too much time on there hands.

Hi kcsunshine,

Not too sure about Cote D'Azur or Majorca as an investment area, but in regards to your CGT question, the answer is, it depends if the country you are buying in has a double taxation treaty with the UK (assuming you are a UK citizen).

There is a treaty between the UK and Spain, so if for example CGT is 20% in Spain and the UK, you would have to pay the 20% to the Spanish tax office no matter what, but as you have paid the 20% in Spain, you wont have to pay it in the UK on any gains from your foreign property.

If the CGT in Spain is 15% and the UK is 20%, you will need to pay the full amount in Spain, and the extra 5% when you repatriate the funds back to the UK.

Hope this helps.

OK, a slightly unnecessary boorish reaction, but I'll recap cap on details I've posted in the past on this area.

colleague bought a house at Christmas, he now commutes 3-4 days a week between there and London, so I have had an insight into the market at the upper end.

He originally just down for Christmas for a holiday (well, he's been going down there on and off for years), and had a look at a couple of places out of interest. There was plenty on offer, asking prices bore no relation to what sellers will accept, and he was able to negotiate a substantial discount - I don't know the exact specifics but around 30% is the indication. There was good choice, few buyers, increasing desperation of sellers. It is not an investment, its a house for his use, and occasional rental. When I was down there last Summer there was building everywhere, loads on the market.


There are a few real problems to offset the obvious attractions.
1. The cost of getting any work done will make your eyes water.
2. The traffic makes hte M25 on a bad day looks like a kiddies tea party.
3. Crime is endemic.

He has recently been approached for a holiday rental, but price is not great. He tried to talk rent up, but agent commented that there was a fair bit of vacancy for this summer generally, and quite a few cancellations occuring as the year progresses. The yield based on this is not sufficient to make economic sense, notwithstanding the likelihood of voids in peak periods.

Where exactly are we talking about here, near Nice? We just came back from the Luberon and everything was slow with agents and sellers desperate. All agents told us rentals were way off aswell so we felt you would be lucky to cover expenses let alone a mortgage.

Yes, just inland attractive sought after old village near Nice/Cannes.

'tis a while seen I owned a golf, top cars. Apologies if I offended your sensibilities, I have difficulties in taking someone seriously re. property when they can't spell and have a loose buying range of £250-500K and admit they're not seriously looking....however, just realised, you're actually no different to the millions how have over extended themselves in the UK and overseas over the past few years; random budgets (determined by their borrowing 'power') zero investigation on their chosen destination...and probably can't spell either