There actually has been a major modification in French Law which has now made it even more attractive for investors looking to claim their own little piece of France.

Up until recently, France was one of those markets that we sort of stayed clear from. Not because I haven’t thought that it would make a great investment, but more for the fact that the laws for recovering the VAT and the restrictions for selling up were just a little too complex for my liking.

Under French leasebacks it used to be that you could claim the VAT back right from the start, which is a whopping 19.6%, as long as it was in the leaseback scheme. The downside, was that if you sold it at anytime within the first 20 years after completion of construction, you would have to pay back a proportionate amount of the VAT that you had already recovered back to the French taxman. This was essentially handcuffing you to the property for 20 years in order to maximize your return on investment.

Thankfully, this has all changed with this recent modification, which allows you to sell at anytime without having to pay any of the VAT back to the French taxman. You still have to pay it up front, however, but you can claim the full 19.6% as soon as the sale has gone through.

By removing this barrier the leaseback schemes have become not only a lot more appealing to investors and the flippers, but it will also increase the liquidity of resales in the French property market.

I still believe that there is a lot of ‘red tape’ in the French market, but with expert advice France is still, and always will be, one of the most solid and secure markets in the world.