VINGT Paris

Portes Ouvertes

Full marks to ERA Beaubourg for something (slightly) innovative. I've been wondering for some time why the agencies here don't do the Open House style property viewing as in the UK and USA.

ERA recently organised a Portes Ouvertes where more than 120 apartments (under their exclusive mandat) were open to interested buyers to visit over a Saturday.

I'm glad they were brave enough to get the project off the ground. My theory about why nobody was doing it was agencies would always be terrified that 90% of the "interested parties" would be rivals looking to cosy up to the vendor and tempt them over to their own agency.

Thomas Veyrard, pictured above. Looks like a Mills & Boon style hero to boot.

John Agee Paris on rue Jacob

I visited friend and Bonapart client John Agee on Friday evening. Suffice to say it was a satisfying experience to see him living his dream and not least because he has a secret cache of champagne in a minute fridge hidden behind his desk.

Texan (with a smidgen of French heritage) John Agee has touched down in Paris' most exclusive shopping area, rue Jacob in St Germain des Prés. His brand new (well 17th century structurally but brand new interior) jewelbox-like premises nestles alongside world-class antiques boutiques on this discreet street for those in the know.

John is a talented jewellery designer hailing from McAllen, Texas, although he could pass as an Edwardian englishman. Design and production in the US were going swimmingly but he'd felt the lure of Paris from an early age.

Cole Porter and Billie Holiday play on the stereo, he thinks the French do in-store décor well but can't abide the silence that greets the shopper. He proudly showed me the fabulous renovation, (handled by Marc Berri architects who also did Loulou de la Falaise's boutique - contact via Olivier des Clers SO2 design based NYC/Paris).

He also showed me his brand new residence permit, grinning like a Cheshire Cat. Not for the light-hearted - he and his partner Luis Fernandez sold their home in LA, moved half-way across the world, set up a French company to complement the US base and started a renovation project on a listed building. NB: The French reputation for bureaucracy is not conducive to these types of plans.

As well as his signature jewellery line he'll be showcasing talented handbag designers as well as local artists such as sculptor Thierry Breton who is nestling amongst the necklaces right now

It's at dream location at no.11, rue Jacob and they're still coming down to earth!

Spend Spend Spend like Viv

The iconic Viv Nicholson - Heaven Knows She's Miserable Now.........

I just heard from a client today that Abbey National in the UK have recently
announced a whopping borrowing limit of 5 times your salary! Whoah.

It's quite hard for UK and American borrowers to understand the cautious approach of French banks. In fact the French have a completely different attitude to borrowing and lending than us spendthrifts. Here in France, one doesn't really live beyond one's means. If you don't have the money, you don't buy the shoes or you stay at home on a Saturday night! Very few people have credit cards. (I still have mine but I don't really use them now - I like them for emergencies, I am an entrereneur you know, we need these things. I remind myself that Michael Moore made most of his movies on cards if the going gets tough.)

In the UK most people have credit cards and store cards (Harvey Nichols and Selfridges are the good ones in London) - average household debt in the UK is £8,582 (excluding mortgages) and £50,918 including mortgages. The average owed by every UK adult is £26,747 (including mortgages). This grew by £225 last month.
Stats from Credit Action.

Here in France it's a bit tougher, you have to really prove you can afford it before you borrow, you must earn three times the monthly repayments when taking a mortgage and here are the documents required for the application (Thanks to Samina Arnoult of Samina Arnoult Global Financial Services for this list):

• Identity card, passport etc. proof of identity
• Pre-sale agreement/Promesse de Vente or details on proposed real estate project
• Marriage or divorce papers, if divorced
• Marriage contract, if there is one
• Last 2 income tax returns - or more if you are self-employed
• Last 3 full months of bank statements
• Details of other loans and statements (tableau d'amortissement)
• Proof of down payment (normally 20% of purchase price)
• Proof of notaire fees (normally 7-8% of purchase price)
• Proof of incoming rent if you have rental property
• Title deeds of all your properties
• Your rent slip, if you are renting
• Your last 3 payslips if employed
• If you are self employed or own a company, your by-laws, company registration and last 3 years of balance sheets
• If you'd like to renovate and finance this also, quotes from the builders
• If the property you are buying is for rental you need an estimation of future rent from an agency or the current lease if property is already rented
• Statements of all your assets (funds, portfolios, savings accounts etc.)

Phew. If you are not an organised person you better get yourself in order when you decide to carry out business or buy property in France.

Renovation reflections

I always like to check in with clients after they have their keys and I am very excited to see the make-over of an apartment I sourced for a US businessman last year. The objective was to find a two bedroom, two bathroom property which would then be given a high-end renovation to prepare it to be rented out with a luxury vacation company.

Photos here are not of this particular apartment but serve as an example of some kitchen and bathroom disaster areas.

Two bedroom/two bathroom properties are highly sought after in this marketplace especialy if the are equipped to "US standards" (I could add UK standards too!). Clients are often shocked to see the state of kitchens and bathrooms in Paris apartments, even those on sale by the so-called luxury agencies such as Daniel Feau. Ninety percent of the time, to achieve the required finish, everything needs to be completely ripped out.

My personal pet peeve is apartments that have been - "entirely re-done" - in bad taste with yucky materials. Many owners aspire to finding a foreign buyer (cue pupils rotating with $$$) and think if they provide a ready-to-move-in apartment someone will buy it off the shelf - sometimes they are even complete with all furniture and fittings. Suffice to say we have never had a client buy one of these "fast-food" style apartments because they usually represent terribly poor value for money and an ugly re-fit job to boot. In fact, I don't know who actually does buy them!

I was interested to read comments from the aforementioned owner of the apartment in the Marais - wise words a few months down the line:

"The only thing I would change in my search if I were to do it over again, would be to better recognize that after purchase, the apartment is going to be torn down completely inside so the current condition/layout almost doesn't matter. The only things that matters are things one can't change like view, elevator, location, square meters, interior walls protected by Syndic, etc. The all in cost is quite a lot, but I think Paris real estate values will catch up to what is invested someday, but perhaps not right away. I think the reality is that you can't just easily buy an apartment in the finished condition that this one will be in when redecorated, so pricing is hard to compare."

Paris stylee walk on the wild side

Just out from the Mairie de Paris is this map of the most deprived areas of Paris, where they are investing in 211 million euros this year alone. We may have high taxes but at least the money is being invested in our city and it's inhabitants, including the most needy 350 000.

Attached to each area, there is a list of the number of inhabitants, the percentage of those under 20 years old and the percent unemployed (Chomage). The 24% foreigners we're not talking about these people, but mostly African and Maghrebin (North African) immigrants.

You could use this as a guide of where to buy that will eventually appreciate rather than hold it's value like the more priveleged parts of Paree. If you are on a limited budget and quite a pioneer. Like other capital cities, at least London (see Brixton) and New York (hipster-ville Williamsburg), Paris is gentrified up now and house prices in even places shown on this indicator like Belleville and Menilmontant have risen sharply over the years.

You could still choose the dodgy parts of town that are left (and cheaper), batten down the hatches, bribe your friends to visit you and then sooner or later you'll see a delicatessan selling over-priced Italian salami spring up on the corner where the drug addicts used to hang out.

In La Chapelle in the 18th, prices have risen by 21% between June 2005 - June 2006. It's here you find the quartier L Goutte d'Or where "Nana" was born - before I moved here I had to visit to see it was still a web of Zola-esqe crime and destitution. The answer is a resounding Yes. Don't ask me then why I decided to live nearby (Chateau Rouge) for the first year I was in Paris. I didn't realise it until I moved to a quartier "moins chaud" but it felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders. I hadn't realised it but I had been internalising a kind of tension through the kind of "looking over my shoulder" behaviour and was getting worn down by the racy remarks from the North African men, young and old.

"Enfin, un quartier ancien au bâti très dégradé était concerné, la Goutte d’or, touchée par de lourds problèmes sociaux, de délinquance et de toxicomanie."

There are some extremely run-down buildings and social problems amongst the most visible, drug addiction.

So before jumping in as a pioneer, make sure you can hack it or will you feel unsafe coming from the Metro to your door late at night. You may not be able to hang out in your local Cafe either in that much comfort (okay sorry, I'm exaggerating but in some areas there are NO women in the cafes at all, except the odd prostitute). If this is a problem for you, stay away from some of these areas - at least until you are more streetwise because of course they are all fabulous in their own way too and I do still love Chateau Rouge and the time I spent there. The local Boulanger still remembers me when I pass by on the days I go to the fantatstic Marché Exotique on the rue Dejean. Very cheap and great for hard to find ingredients.

If you are thinking of renting your property to foreigners, especially short term holiday visitors, stay away from these areas on the map all together, yes, even Montmartre with the Sacre Coeur (oh, all right then, unless you are totaly stuck on the area like the fabulous Lamark Caulincourt) because sometimes people are very wary about going there at all, warned by alarmist guidebooks and Hotel Concierge. If it's too far from the Cafe Flore you'll be looking at an empty bookings calendar unless you've targetted a more Paree-Savvy type of visitor, of course these do exist.

Mais, J'aime ma ville en toute ses formes!

Foreign buyers

The Chamber of Notaries reported that from July 2005 to June 2006, 8.1 percent of all sales in Paris involved foreigners, an increase from 5.7 percent 10 years ago. The demand is particularly concentrated in some neighborhoods, with non-French generating 25.5 percent of the sales in the 8th and a whopping 34.5 percent in the Latin Quarter. Americans make up 11.3 percent of the city’s foreign buyers, mainly heading for the 6th and 7th. First place goes to the Italians who like the 6th but are also crazy about the Marais and Montorgueill.

Here's an interesting piece by long term resident Amerloque who has seen the changes over the years:

"While there may only be one Paris, it is changing quite rapidly and, in Amerloque's view, not necessarily for the better. These changes might affect property values in the medium and long term. At intervals the French press reports the significant shifts in population: people are moving out of Paris and the Paris region (the Ile de France). The two major groups reported as leaving are retired individuals and families with children. This augurs ill for the Parisian economy overall since the former usually are in higher tax brackets and the latter are what makes cities vibrant, living, evolving entities. In addition, Paris is losing many of its distinctive small shops and restaurants: there seem to be fewer every year. There are more traffic jams, and there is more casual crime in some parts of town. Paris is being emptied of its working and middle classes – it is becoming a paradise for BoBos ... and tourists, of course ! Amerloque shudders to think that it might become another Venice !

More on the return of the BoBo's another day........

Pre-Sale Efficiency Report - another diagnostic

Before a house may be sold, it is obligatory as of today, 1 November 2006, to have an energy diagnosis (diagnostic de performance énergétique).

The diagnoses - to be carried out by a professional - are in order to identify the estimated consumption of energy of a building on two criteria:

The consumption of energy: usage of electricity in running the house measured by kWh/m2 of primary energy

The impact of this consumption: greenhouse gas emissions measured in Kg of CO2/m2

The efficiency report assesses energy usage and and natural risks along with noting the presence of asbestos and lead. It includes technical recommendations for improving consumption.

More info from the official government advisory site.

New for autumn:

4* Amiral Hotel at 98 avenue d'Italie 75013.

Italian Vincent Cozzoli is opening his new resto Villa Dell'Arte - in the spot formerly occupied by the Pavilion Puebla next to Parc des Buttes-Chaumont - the restaurant is in a Second-Empire pavilion with views of the park behind. Corner of Ave Simon Bolivar and Rue Botzaris 19e Tel: 01 42 08 92 62

Close by is La Geode, the new hemispheric cinema equipped with the latest digital technology.

850E for 18m² in the 9th arrond.

This Saturday, there will be another demonstration by young people (Jeudi Noir) who can't find proper accomodation in Paris. They are protesting on the humiliating process of trying to find an apartment to rent in Paris, particularly through the Particulier Particulier (PAP), a property magazine carrying listings for apartments for rent and for sale direct with the owner.

Because of protective tenant laws there is a shortage of housing in Paris; owners are simply scared to rent their apartments (even though we have a tax on un-rented empty property here) because of horror stories of sitting tenants. It is true that the general consensus is that if the owner slips up in any way the tenant can score a free apartment for a year, or a lot longer (if you stop paying rent in October, don't worry, you can't be thrown on the street until the Spring, it's illegal). It can take a year just to have a legal process started to eject a tenant and by that time, you're due a year's rent with no end in sight.

I know lawyers are often regarded with suspicion as tenants as they have been known to comb their contracts for loopholes and it surprised me that it's often bourgeois couples and even diplomats (they have that immunity gig dontcha know) that try and exploit the law. Having tried to rent an apartment myself through PAP, I had little or no chance as my because my job is in immobilier the owners thought I'd know the law better than them (true) and that I was out to screw them (false). Remember, here in Paris, you are often considered guilty before being proven innocent. I have a theory that this breeds dishonesty but that's a story for another day..........

This so-called protection has effectively back-fired on the tenants it's supposed to protect and made the rental process overly rigourous and extremely stressful, one could even say shamefully discriminatory. Young Parisians have to provide an immense dossier and prove they earn three times more than the monthly rent to even get a look in. Sometimes those with even decent jobs would be sniffed at by the snotty Agence Immobilier and therefore they have no choice except to try their luck with the PAP. The agency won't even propose them as tenants to their owners so the alternative is, start the calls at 7am on Thursday morning (the day the paper comes out), prepare an immense dossier and try to set up as many appointments as possible.

The dossier will contain the following documents (originals + copies):

- Passport and a french residents card
- Student card or proof of registration
- Income
3 previous wage slips
Pension
and/or other income
- Latest tax receipt (2 previous if no regular wage)
- French bank statement
and a letter of good banking conduct from same bank

Next step will be to provide the same information from your caution solidaire - this is somone who signs an "Acte de caution" alongside your documents to promise to be liable to pay your rent if you decide to stop. This could be your parents or a friend but it's kind of a big ask! If your parents don't have the means or live outside France, forget it, you are more than likely to be passed over.

So get ready for queuing in the street as the owner does open house. And make no mistake they will not try to hide their disdain if you have a somewhat shaky paperwork, are self-employed, non-French or of an ethnic minority. All these things will count against you. A vaguely arabic sounding name can often result in a curt "C'est DEJA loué" as the phone slams down.

And guess what, not only that but rents have gone up 120% in Paris since 1998!

More to come on this subject and hopefully a report from the manif, if they don't lynch me for aiding and abetting wealthy foreigners to invade their city and force real live Parisians out into the suburbs. Gulp.

I this post from a comment on the site where jeudi noir's video is posted; I couldn't resist the gallows humour. "Jeune maghrébin noir, unijambiste et homosexuel recherche chambre de bonne 6e étage sans ascenseur."