It has recently been announced that 30,000 homes are due to
be torn down in Spain this year as they have been classed
as illegal developments with insufficient or incorrect
documentation or simply without planning permission. This
sort of thing may come as no surprise to many of you who
have been reading the papers over the last few years where
cases such as these have been well documented. This is in
addition to other problems in Spain such as the "land grab"
scenario by local authorities in Valencia where hundreds of
home owners have ended up losing their homes which many
have their life savings locked up in. Now it seems that
this type of thing is now happening in other newly
"fashionable" cheap countries which promoted cheap
investments with seemingly incredible projected capital
growth prospects such as Bulgaria. The OPP magazine
recently discovered that 200 developments in Bulgaria have
now been torn down in just the 1st 6 months of 2006 for
very similar reasons to the properties in Spain- namely
insufficient planning permission. This type of rogue
developing and false selling is not only a financial
disaster for the poor individuals who spent vast amounts of
money on their properties in these countries but is also
incredibly emotionally draining for them, many of whom have
based their pension plans on the capital growth of these
properties or are in fact already retired and may be
planning to live there.
Unlike any other country in the world the French have a
fascination with paperwork, contracts and the rule of the
law and although this can be seen as a hassle at the time
to comply with all their regulations and complete all the
necessary paperwork it does in fact protect the purchaser
to the extent not found any where else. Vast numbers of
developments being torn down by mis-selling and illegal
construction activity by developers in France is simply
unheard of and therefore makes it the safest place to buy
property. It is therefore an excellent location to invest
as it provides very reasonable capital growth with a steady
rental and resale market. Some Bulgarian developers have
been boasting capital growth of 20% per annum in some areas
but with no way of verifying their statistics can these
figures really be relied upon and will the property
actually still be there in a couple of years? On the other
hand capital growth in France was over 10% in 2005 (source:
FNAIM www.fnaim.com ) which coupled with its very low
deposits and ease of mortgage application makes it a highly
rewarding and yet sensible place to invest.
Of course there is still the choice of where in France is
the best place to purchase and from whom. For property
hunters who can often be bombarded by developments from
every location it is hard to distinguish which are the
savvy investments and which are not so savvy. Leapfrog
properties works with only the most reputable and
established developers in France and has nearly 150
developments to choose from placing it in a unique position
where its consultants can give totally unbiased advice on
where and what to buy. They can advise on which are the
areas currently performing the best but also on where
future growth is predicted and whereabouts in France the
best deals are to be had.
----------------------------------------------------
Niclas Dowlatshahi is Managing Director of Leapfrog
Properties who are an agency who specialise in property
sales in France. http://www.leapfrog-properties.com
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