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If you have ever fallen in love with a cheap European real estate listing that you saw online, you wouldn’t be the only one. In recent years, there seems to have been an endless stream of attention-grabbing headlines touting 1-euro-houses in abandoned Italian villages and dilapidated castles requiring restorations.
While it can feel like an opportunity to live out your Under The Tuscan Sun fantasy, waiting years for renovation approvals or finding out that your dirt cheap house actually comes with an expensive catch, can make the journey less of a fairy-tale.
This is an experience that Australian couple, Karina and Craig Waters (@chateaugudanes on Instagram), know all too well, after purchasing a run-down Chateau in France. While the couple have now been awarded for their incredible restoration efforts, the journey to get there wasn’t always smooth sailing.
“In the beginning, we were conveniently swept up in the fairy-tale of a Château in a faraway land, rather than comprehending what it would really mean living in a foreign country, with a language we didn’t speak, and the responsibility required of owning and restoring a historic monument,” explains Karina. “Adapting to the French lifestyle, culture and language has certainly not come easily, and it has taken several years for us to find our place here and for it to feel like home.”
Whether its a $1 house in an abandoned Italian village or a historic Chateau in the French countryside, these are the five things you need to know before buying your European fixer-upper.
1. Be realistic about your financial situation
European fixer-uppers often go viral for their seemingly low prices but it’s important to factor in the other hidden costs.
“Taxes on your home in France will be a significant cost to consider (they are large and numerous and the reason why larger properties are always on the market) let alone additional taxes from your resident country,” explains Karina.
“If you need to renovate, the costs are high (at least when compared to Australia), and you should also consider the difficulty of actually finding specialised workers in rural areas as you may need to pay additional costs for a larger company to travel and do larger scale work.”
The possible costs also don’t stop when you have finished renovating the property.
“Maintenance costs of a home in Europe (possibly as well as a home in your resident country) will be important to think about. Then you have to factor in things like travel costs per year and if you are planning on spending extended periods of time in Europe how you will work in a country where you may not speak the language. Even just obtaining a French visa, it took Karina two years of travelling back and forth to Sydney and France and there were significant costs involved,” explains Craig.
2. Start learning the language
The reality of living—let alone buying and renovating a property—in a country where you don’t speak the language can be extremely difficult. If you’re speaking to real estate agents, negotiating contracts and working with tradesmen, it will help to have a basic grip on the language.
In France, Craig and Karina found out that very few French people spoke English in the area that they bought. For this reason, they suggest “start learning right away!”
3. Rent in the area first
If you feel yourself getting swept up in the fantasy of moving to a foreign land, it’s probably a good idea to spend some time getting to know the area on a more long-term basis.
“Once you have narrowed your search to a specific region we would suggest renting a place for three months or so to really get a feel for the area,” suggests Karina. “Not just the scenery but consider – are there are activities on offer that you will enjoy year round? Are there all of the amenities that you will need (schools, doctors, supermarkets, public transport, a space that holds language classes etc)? Is there a group of local people who speak your language (as you will need a support system as you nurture your new life and people who know the area to give you guidance and also if you need help in a difficult situation)?”
It’s important to remember your move is not a holiday and therefore you need to be prepared for what living in these (often more remote) areas do entail.
4. Research the property’s past
If you’re thinking about buying an old or listed property then you’re going to need to read up on the approvals required to get started on renovations.
For Karina and Craig, their restoration process was delayed for a significant period of time while the right approvals were granted.
“It takes many many months sometimes years to gather together the relevant research and documentation before sending in the final documents for permissions. And then, you may have to wait a significant amount of time to find out whether your plans were approved or not,” Karina explains.
At the same time, it’s important to learn about your property’s past to honour any important historical details in your renovations.
” Take the time to research and understand the past so that you can best preserve this for the future. And if possible to live in the property before doing any work to embrace this past in a physical sense and understand better how you wish to live there in the future,” recommends Karina.
5. Get legal advice
One of the biggest tips Karina and Craig have for anyone considering a foreign fixer-upper is to get the proper legal advice.
“Before the stage of putting in an offer on a property, it is worth sitting down for some legal advice preferably from a bilingual lawyer and a specialist accountant so that you can discuss how it would be best to structure the purchase of a property,” says Karina.
“You will need to take into account issues such as being a resident vs. a non-resident, wealth tax, inheritance tax, capital gains, personal tax implications etc. In our situation, after reviewing all of this we came to the conclusion that it is nearly impossible to have a perfect scenario.”
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