Winter Lets

While summer season, short-term rental income has long been a consideration for many holiday-homeowners keen to maximise the benefits of their French property, longer-term winter lets are becoming increasingly popular too, lasting from one to six months or more. Although higher summer rents are naturally attractive, increasing competition in the gîte and holiday accommodation market in popular parts of France mean winter lets can enable owners to maximise their earnings and balance out any quiet summer weeks.

As well as the opportunity to bring in year-round income, long-term lets have the added advantage of ensuring your property is occupied (and heated) all year round, good news for security and maintenance (preventing damp in unaired property, for example). France has a buoyant rental market, with plenty of demand. 

Here are some top tips to ensure your winter lets run smoothly.

1)
Many parts of France are as cold or colder than the UK in winter, so some form of heating is essential. French properties often have stone or wood floors, which benefit from cosy rugs in winter.

2)
It is important to set the rent at the correct level to ensure you attract interest (and the right kind of interest), but this can be more difficult to ascertain than summer lets where you can more easily check out your competitors’ rates. Winter rates will be lower than peak season, so you could just set a discount of, say, 25- 30% on your summer rates. You could be flexible depending on the length of the tenancy, with longer lets attracting a bigger reduction. You may be willing to take a lower rate if the whole amount is paid upfront. City and town rents are easier to determine as you can compare your prices with the classified ads (petites annonces) in local newspapers.

3)
In France unfurnished lets are normally for a minimum of three years and bound by various regulations and tax implications; a standard rental contract (contrat de location nonmeublé) applies. Winter lets are more likely to involve furnished holiday homes and gîtes. Since 20 January 2005 (except for holiday lets) a contract of at least one year is legally required when renting furnished property to a tenant who doesn’t own another property or have another tenancy agreement as his main home. Tenant and landlord should both sign an état des lieux, which is a kind of inventory which also lists the type of property, location and condition. You could use blank lease forms (see www.tissot.fr and www.pap.fr) or your local estate agent or notaire should be able to draw up an agreement (it is common to share the charge 50/50 between tenant and landlord). Rental income from a French property must be declared to the French tax authorities.

4)
You need to decide how you will charge for services such as electricity, gas, water, telephone, internet and so on. Options include charging the tenant at cost for services or including them in the monthly rent – or a combination of the two. For longer lets it may make sense to transfer utility bills into the tenant’s name. In addition to services, you may also want to charge for laundry, bedlinen, logs for the fire, and so on. Residential tax (taxe d’habitation) is paid by whoever is living in the property, while property tax (taxe foncière) is paid by the owner. Local councils also charge a visitor’s tax (taxe de séjour). Check with your local mairie to see if this tax applies to you.

5)
Options include any of the following, or a combination:
• Your own website
• Specialist letting websites
• English- and French-language magazines and newspapers,
• Local estate agents
• Local shop windows.

Consider including information about the property itself, prices per month, minimum rental periods, whether storage is available and so on, as well as good photos, of course.

6)
You should always ask for a deposit up front, to reserve the rental period for the tenant, act as pre-payment for utilities and cover any damages. The first month’s rent should also be paid up front. And do you want to be paid in euros or sterling?

7)
It is obviously preferable that the prospective tenant visits the property first to ensure it will meet his/her needs, and this also gives you the opportunity to assess whether the tenant is suitable. This is particularly important for longer lets of a year or so. Interview tenants carefully, remembering to ask the right questions, e.g. how many people will be staying in your property, will there be frequent visitors, pets, smokers, will they work from home, etc. It is also preferable to ask for references from the prospective tenant’s bank or employer.

8)
There are various scams out there, aimed at unsuspecting owners, so take care when responding to enquiries. Warning bells should ring if a prospective tenant doesn’t ask many questions about the property, doesn’t want to view it, offers vague dates, requests personal information, and so on – if something seems too good, it normally is.

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