Anyone investing in Marseille, France ?

[Alexi Schreier]

Hey all, I'm an American investor living in the south of France (Aix-en-Provence). I'm interested in the Marseille area and was wondering if anyone on BP is investing there. I'm interested in purchasing single apartments and single family homes as rentals.

[David Cardoso]

Originally posted by @Brian Serina:

No but my wife and I really like the southern area of France.  Please do let us know how it goes - I would be very interested in the journey you take if you do purchase something there.  We went to Nice a couple years ago and spent two weeks bike riding and while there ended up looking at a lot of property for sale, mostly vacation rentals.  More for curiosity I suppose.  A lot of Brits have rentals there and it seemed like a lot of stuff on the market that was for sale were owned by...Brits.  Like anything, make sure you have a good lawyer that can navigate both the French system and the American.  Dealing with two tax systems gives me a head-ache just thinking about it...

 The double tax system may be more of an expense or a hassle than most realize. Being a dual citizen with Italy has given me lots of opportunities to invest in Italy, especially in the Alps, of which I have engaged in none. After you crunch the numbers the margins are very challenging. When you consider the time spent, all the organization and double taxation it becomes very difficult for individual investors to do well abroad. My recommendation is to seek more passive routes of real estate investing such as investment groups, shares of RE Companies, REITs etc for the European theatre as it will relieve you of much of the leg work, hassle and headache, especially if you aren't native (working a deal can be tough as the "American" even when you speak the local dialect). Just my $.02