Question: I am purchasing an apartment in Paris. I am being charged on top of the purchase price for the refrigerator, stove, oven, dishwasher etc. Is this normal?  Normally, appliances and/or furniture are not included in the sale of an apartment. However, you can agree with the seller to buy them along with the property.

An interview with our collaborator Christophe Chastel, who owns and runs Guest Apartment Services, a luxury rentals company based on Paris’s Ile St. Louis.

The UK government has cracked down on the practice of purchasing properties through a company structure in order to avoid paying stamp duty. This measure is aimed in particular at wealthy foreign buyers who have bought investment properties that have subsequently been left empty.

The luxury property market thrived in 2013, says a new report on international real estate. London was the most popular destination for luxury property buyers seeking a second home but also the most expensive. The latter factor may encourage buyers to start looking to other cities, including Paris.

Everyone has heard of the Palace of Versailles, one of the most sumptuous palaces ever built and a monument to the power and wealth of the Sun King, Louis XIV. The chateau of Vaux-le-Vicomte is smaller and less well-known but is a gem in its own right. And it was the inspiration for Versailles in […]

Question: In a French property transaction, who pays the selling agency’s fee, the buyer or the seller, and is it negotiable? Standard practice in France is that the selling agency’s fees normally amount to around 5% of the purchase price of the property. The fees are agreed between the seller and the real estate agent […]

Real estate is in a class of its own when it comes to investment in alternative asset classes (i.e. not stocks, bonds or cash), a recent survey by Morgan Stanley reveals. Of U.S. high net worth (NHW) investors with $1million dollars or more in financial assets, 77% own real estate, while 35% own Real Estate […]

Paris is a densely populated city with a high proportion of apartments to houses. Gardens and outside spaces are therefore at a premium. However, there are various ways of finding or creating an external space.

This grand top floor Haussmannian apartment is located in a quiet residential area of the 17th arrondissement, between the Place Pereire and the Place Catroux, in the vicinity of the Parc Monceau.

Property experts consider that now is a good time to buy prestige real estate in Paris. The prices of prime properties in the sought-after Parisian neighborhoods are not as high as those in London or Geneva – also coveted by prestige property buyers.