An Irishwoman who rents villas in France's most famous holiday spot finds more and more people back home are planning a summer escape there, writes ALANNA GALLAGHER
HIGH profile owners like Derek Quinlan may have sold up on the Riviera – but renters are discovering the Côte d’Azur in their droves. The number of Irish people renting is rising, says Dublin-born Suzanne McElhinney, who manages a company that leases high-end villas. L&F (Luxury Family) Properties, which once rented out Quinlan’s own Cap Ferrat villa at around €300,000 a month, has seen business boom this summer.
“We have more Irish clients than ever this summer. Most are word-of-mouth recommendations.” She puts the year-on-year increase at between 30 per and 40 per cent.
Villa owners there are jumping aboard the rental train in a bid to recoup some of their own second-home outgoings. Gardeners, pool upkeep and general property maintenance all cost a packet.
“Holidays are the last thing our clients want to give up,” explains McElhinney, who has been living and working in this holiday hotspot for eight years. “The Irish will pass on trading up their car and make other everyday cuts to their standard of living but they won’t give up this, their one great escape from it all.”
L&F has 125 rental properties on its books. Location-wise, Irish renters and buyers prefer the mountainous back country to the bling of the Côte d’Azur’s blue waterfront. “They don’t want a waterfront apartment. Instead they want a bit of land to kick around in.” Sea-side villas and apartments are more popular with her Russian and Arab clientele.
Mougins and Valbonne are two of the most desirable areas with Irish renters. There, an L&F five-bedroom property with a pool and a view rents for between €7,000 and €10,000 per week in high season.
Irish renters have little interest in Eze-sur-Mer, where Bono has his holiday house, although Suzanne has an Irish-owned property there that is for sale. The five-bedroom modern house has sea views, a pool and is within walking distance of the village. It’s asking €4.1 million. Well-located properties in the village rent for between €15,000 and €20,000 per week in July and August.
Smart families are sharing these costs by doubling up, renting the property with friends to offset some of their outlay. Others are using the occasion to return hospitality; inviting guests out to join them for a few days. One such Irish family, with five kids, is renting a nine-bedroom house, that can sleep up to 16 people, for the entire month of August – at €15,000 per week.
These prices, while not cheap, are better value than before, says Suzanne. “In the past, the idea of negotiating a price was unheard of. These days people want to negotiate, be it for a rental or on a purchase price.”
She has two Irish buyers currently house hunting for a Riviera villa. One has a budget of €5m, the other €2m. She’s found the latter a six-bedroom property with large garden and pool near Valbonne. The €1.95m Villa Lucie is just under the buyer’s budget and the family plans to rent the house first to “try it before they buy”. It commands a weekly rent of €9,000 but they’ve negotiated it down 11 per cent to €8,000. If they buy, that €8,000 will be deducted from the house price.
If the prices thus far have burst your Côte d’Azur bubble, don’t dismay. Read on. Spiderhome.fr is a recently launched property service by Dublin woman Kerry-Leigh Buckley, who until last year ran CB French Property.
Her site offers Riviera holiday rentals, long-term rentals and apartments and homes to buy. Owners, for a fee, can upload their own property ads.
“I wanted to create a space for Irish and English-speaking people who were having difficulty with the language and wanted to sell or rent their homes,” Buckley explains. The site also hosts house swaps.
Rents start from €400 per week for studios, while a one-bedroom apartment that sleeps up to six and is situated on Nice’s Promenade des Anglais costs €895 per week in high season. One Irish-owned property, Villa Anam Cara, can sleep up to nine and costs €2,000 per week in high season.
The cheapest property to buy on Spiderhome is a 20sq m (215sq ft) studio, in the medieval village of Haut de Cagnes. It costs €90,000 and comes with a balcony. The most expensive is a €9 million pile in chi chi St Paul de Vence. The five bedroom, five bathroom home has 550sq m (5,920sq ft) of indoor space, panoramic sea views, a swimming pool and 7,582sq m (81,611sq ft) of outdoor space.
When it comes to luxury villas, a sea view is paramount. Other “standards” include a garden, a saltwater infinity pool big enough to do laps in, a high-tech spec that includes state-of the-art security and sound systems and tennis courts. Irish renters also request Sky on satellite, says Suzanne.
But there are hidden extra costs that buyers need to consider, not least the still-possible property tax on which President Nicolas Sarkozy did a U-turn last month.
Why buy on the French Rivieria? “The number one draw is the weather,” says Kerry-Leigh. “Also, the Côte d’Azur is reputedly one of the most expensive parts of France but I find it to be better priced than Dublin.”
At the high end it also offers sound returns. A house on Cap d’Antibes can be bought for €12 million and will rent for between €15,000 and €20,000 per week in July and August, adds McElhinney.
Derek Quinlan’s eight-bedroom Villa La Carrière at Cap Ferrat, which has just sold for a reported €70 million had been on L&F’s books at €300,000 a month.
The entry-level property on L&F’s books is called Picasso and has four bedrooms, a pool, a garden and an asking price of €1.79 million. The company is looking for other properties to rent or to sell. The sales side has picked up again, says Suzanne, with real buyers rather than sales tourists presenting at their Mougins office.
How can she tell the difference? “The real buyers don’t house shop during the holidays. They do one of two things; try and complete the sale in spring in the hope that they can holiday there during the summer or they wait until the mercury drops and buy in September or October, having already tested the house by holidaying there.”
L&F Properties: riviera-luxury-villas.com
Spiderhome: spiderhome.fr
