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Louise Taylor talks to owners of new build homes in the south of France and finds out what made them sign on the dotted line.
 Sarah Breslin and her husband John are the proud owners of a home at Les Jardins de Saint Benoit, a new development build on the edge of the village of Saint Laurent de Cabrerisse, in the Aude département. A couple in their thirties, the Breslins live in Churchtown in Dublin, where they work in PR and advertising. They plan to enjoy their new build home with their three children - Sophie, aged nine, Paddy aged four, and 18 month-old Emily.
What sort of property did you buy?
We’ve bought a one-bedroom town house set within a development called Les Jardins de Saint Benoit, which is being built by a Languedoc family company called Garrigae Investissements. We’ve bought off-plan, but the company provided us with plenty of documentation about the resort itself and the properties, inside and out, and all the facilities and amenities that will be on site. We didn’t have a say in the finishing of our home, but this wasn’t an issue as the standard and style of fixtures and fittings are very much what we would have chosen ourselves anyway.
Why did you choose this development and area specifically?
We chose the area after looking around for a while. We’d considered other countries and once we’d agreed on France, we needed good transport links to Dublin, where we live, plus investment potential, and we wanted a location that we’d be happy to spend time in. The Languedoc region fitted the bill, and the philosophy behind Garrigae impressed us – quality of build, location of development and sustainable tourism.
The area is truly beautiful, there are vineyards as far as the eye can see, and such blue skies – it’s gorgeous. On site at Les Jardins there’ll be a spa, a kids’ club, a restaurant stocked with produce from the vegetable plot on site, a vineyard and olive grove, with activities taking place on site to tie in with the harvest – all pretty hard to say no to, really!
How did you find your Langueodoc new build property?
We spoke to an experienced overseas property agent in Dublin that we know and trust, as we wanted to be sure we were dealing with a reputable company. On the agent’s suggestion, I flew down to Languedoc and met with the developer, walked the site, had a coffee in the village and just loved the place.
When will your new home be finished? Where is it exactly, and how will you travel to it?
Most new build projects take 12-18 months from start of construction to delivery. We bought at the end of 2006, so we hope to have the keys in our hand by summer 2008! The resort is just on the edge of a pretty village called Saint Laurent de Cabrerisse, which is in the Corbières wine-making area, about 40 kilometres from Carcassone or Perpignan. It’s also a reasonable drive from Barcelona, and close to Béziers. We’ve got a number of travel options, either by air or sea, depending on how long we’re staying in France, but the easiest route is to fly with Ryanair from Dublin to Carcassone.
How much did your Languedoc home cost, and how did you finance your purchase? How do you plan to use it?
The house will cost us just over €200,000. We bought through a leaseback scheme so we got a VAT rebate of 19.6%, which was an incentive! We will more than likely look at financing through our house in Dublin. We plan to use our French property ourselves, but also let it out, and naturally we hope it will be a good investment - the Languedoc is a wonderful part of the world and one that should allow for some capital growth, too.
You bought your French home on leaseback. How much personal use and rental income do you get?
We were offered four different lease options by Garrigae, depending on how much time we wanted to spend in the property, and what rate of return we wanted to earn. We opted for the Pleasure Investment deal, which means we get four weeks of personal use, two off-peak that friends and family could use, and two during peak season, in the school holidays, which is when we plan to be in France. Our lease is for a fixed term of nine years, with an optional renewal for a further 11 year and beyond, and it’s index-linked, too.
As part of the package, we have a guaranteed rental return of 5.12 per cent gross, which translates as 3.5 per cent cash and 1.62 per cent personal use credit – and none of the trouble of having to find tenants, or manage the rentals side of things!
What about management costs?
They add up to around €18 per square metre per annum, which includes a contribution to annual maintenance of all private and common areas.
To sum up, what are the benefits of buying a new build home in a leaseback scheme?
In a nutshell, leaseback gave us a 19.6% discount on the purchase price of our French holiday home. It means we can use it for a fixed amount of time, which suits us very well, and when we’re not there ourselves, our property is rented out to others and earns us an income. We don’t have to worry about maintenance or any paperwork. It’s a very hassle-free kind of arrangement which is ideal for busy people who don’t want to be bogged down with admin.
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